CREATION BY EVOLUTION
The next stage toward the final product—that is, the honey-bee with its hive—is that of the bumble-bee. The hive of the bumble-bee, unlike that of the honey-bee, dies down during the winter, and the life instincts of the community are carried along in the body of the queen or queens, which retire into winter quarters early in the autumn. In the bumble-bee's hive as first formed there are no regular waxen cells, but the larvae grow up in an irregularly-shaped cell, which is sealed into a waxen covering. Over this the queen bee broods like a hen. Here also we have a specially prepared honey-pot situated near the entrance to the hive. This is not a modification of the ordinary cell, as in the comb of the honey-bee. In the bumble-bees the males take part in the work of the hive. The honeycomb is irregular and rough and may or may not be covered by a waxen dome. The queen bumble-bee lays only 200 to 400 eggs, which is a small number compared with the tens of thousands laid by the queen honey-bee. In the hive of the honey-bee we have true and exact hexagonal cells, each wall of which takes part in forming one side of the surrounding cells. Some of the cells are rather bigger, and these contain the heavy, overgrown drones. Others (but only a few) are still bigger and form irregular lumps of thick wax. Each of these big cells houses an egg, which is destined to become a queen. Other cells are set apart for the storage of pollen and still others for the storage of honey; but of course most of the cells that form the comb contain a single egg, which produces a grub or larva that receives hourly attention from the sterile workers, who act as foster mothers.
It has now been shown that there is a gradual development or evolution from a single pair of bees that make a single cell, isolated and self-contained, through a series of grades. The cells become more and more packed together till they
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