CREATION BY EVOLUTION
ren females; and the drones, or males. In some nests the wax is mixed with resin or gum, which makes it darker. The inside of the nest, like the inside of the hive of the honeybee, is dark. Sufficient food, consisting of pollen and honey, is placed in each cell, and on this the egg is deposited by the queen bee or queen bees. Occasionally a bee leaves the nest, and apparently in many nests all three castes are reared in identical cells on a similar diet. There is no such specialization as that shown in the hive of the honey-bee. Another point of difference is that among the mosquito-bees the cells in which the larvae mature are sealed up. After the egg is laid there is no contact between the larva and the mother or the workers. The drone has not degenerated into the “waster” that he becomes in the hive of the honey-bee but takes part in cementing the wax for the cell walls. The entrance to the hive is guarded during the day by certain sentinels and is closed at night by a mixture of wax and gum.
When we come to the bumble or humble bee we find still further progress toward the state of things we find in the hive of the honey-bee. The bumble-bee has a sting but seldom uses it, and as the poison is weak the pain it inflicts is much less than that produced by the sting of the honey-bee. On the other hand, when once the bee has stung it can withdraw the sting and use it again. This the honey-bee cannot do; its stinging results in its death. The life of the bumble-bee is less orderly than that of the honey-bee. There is less of that irritating efficiency, and there is much more litter; after all what would life be without litter! Bumble-bees are found nearly everywhere in the world except in Africa and Australia, but they prefer a temperate climate. There are hundreds of species of this genus, and seventeen of these are found in Great Britain.
To describe the life of the bumble-bee we may begin with
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