BEE. 
: SR nu 
of the affairs of the hive. There can be no doubt | means of a sort of gelatinous liquid, secreted by the 5 
that bees possess in a very high degree the sense | insect, and it is occupied with cells, formed of a BFre 
of smell; and their possession of the senses of | transparent and delicate membrane, the substance of ot 
taste and hearing is almost equally unquestionable, | which is the same secretion in a _dmed state. The Eay 
whatever difficulty there may be in determining the | cells are thimble-shaped, fitting into each other, a ks 
particular organs of the latter sense.—The wings of | little space being left at the furthest end of each for & 
bees, like those of other hymenopterous insects, are | the reception of an egg and a little paste of pollpu wrhii 
four in number; thin and menibranaceous; the hinder | and honey. The last cell being completed, and its ard 
pair always smaller than the others; and in flight, | proper contents deposited in if, the mouth of the Api 
attached to them by a number of small hooks, so | whole is carefully stopped up with earth.—Some of The 
that the four wings move as if they were two. the solitary bees, possessing great strength of man- ard 
The sting of bees is a very remarkable organ. It | dibles, excavate their nests in old wood. Xylocopa spec 
consists of two long darts, with a protecting sheath. | violacea, one of the Apiarie, not uncommon in Magc 
A venom bag is connected with it, and powerful | some parts of Et}rope, ;nakes a tunnel not less dota 
muscles for its propulsion. The wound appears to ‘phan twelve or fifteen inches long, and half an ahbe 
be first made by the sheath, along which the poison | inch wide, which is divided into ten or twelve e 
cells; an egg with store of pollen and honey is a5 
eposited in each compartment, and as the lowest Tl 
egg is hatched first, a second orifice is provided at & 
that part of the tunnel, through which each of o 
the young ones in succession comes forth to the 861 
light of day, each larva, as it is about to change aad 
into the pupa state, placing itself with its head The 
downwards in the cell.—Numerous species of soli- e 
tary bees excavate their tunnel-shaped nests in the 7 
soft pith of decayed briers or brambles, of the aHT 
particles of which they also form their cells.—Some e 
species of Megachile, Osmia, &c., line them and i 
divide them into cells with portions of leaves or e 
of the petals of flowers. See LEar-curTEr BEE. fitta 
Some of the solitary bees make their nests, not in the KAt 
earth, but in cavities of decaying trees, or other such %;w 
situations, where they construct their cells without 85(, ; 
‘ the same necessity of excavation; but some of Seé{. 
it them, by a very admirable instinct, surround their of T 
i nest with down collected from the leaves of plants, ks 
i an excellent non-conductor of heat, so that a nearly T 
i uniform temperature is maintained in situations in il 
| ; which the changes would otherwise be great and ;:he 
: § Bee Sting, highly magnified. rapid. Some bees make their little nests in old n‘nn 
8 A, sting of bee; S, sheath of sting; F, end of sting, greatly | oak-galls, and there are species which appropriate s 
i magnified, shewing six barbs cm‘vcd. upwards; B, glands for empty snail-shells to that use.—Some Spocies of the J 
61 secreting poison; C, ducts through which it flows to D, . 3 1 o A E i g bes 
i where it is kept ready for use; O, circular dilatationto prevent | S°12US Megachile build their DODt‘? of a sort of whi 
155 sting being thrust too far out of sheath, mason-work of grains of sand glued together with ithe 
Gl their viscid saliva. The nest of M. muraria, thus of I( 
passes by a groove; and the darts thrust out after- | constructed, is so hard as not to be easily pene- Pt 
wards in succession, deepen the wound. The darts | trated by a knife, and very much resembles a splash adla 
are each furnished with a number of barbs, which | of mud upon a wall. ’cch 5 
render it so difficult to withdraw them quickly, that | The social bees live in communities like those of e 
bees often lose their lives by the injury which they | ants, which also, like theirs, consist of males, females, I n 
sustain in the effort.—The males are destitute of | and neuters—these last being females with ovaries Iel; 
sting. imperfectly developed, and characterised by pecu- Liva 
The great family of bees is divided into two | liarities of form and structure, as well as of instinct 4t 
principal sections called Andrenete and Apiarie, or | and employments, remarkably different from those i{n ( 
Andrenide and Apide ; the latter names, however, | of the perfect females. The social bees are conve- S 
being sometimes employed in senses more réstricted. | niently divided into Humble Bees (q. v.) and Honey o 
In the first of these sections, the ligule is compara- | Bees, of the latter of which the common Hive B. . g 
tively short and broad ; in the second, it islengthened, | (see the next section of this article) may be regarded P 
and has the form of a filament. All the Andrencie | as the type. Before proceeding to a more particu- b 
live solitarily, as well as several subdivisions of the | lar account of the Hive B., it may be proper to oi 
Apiaric. These solitary bees do not lay up stores | remark that the species of Honey B. (the restricted I}t)1 B 
for their own winter subsistence; but they display | genus Apis) are not few, and that they are natives s 
very wonderful and various instincts in the habita- | of the warm parts of the Old World ; the Hive bees £40 
tions which they construct and the provision which | (4pis mellifica) which now abound in some parts flic 
they make for their young. There are among them | of America, and which have become naturalised in hs 
males and perfect females only, and no neuters. | the forests to a considerable distance beyond the ad 
The work of preparing nests and providing food for | abodes of civilised men, being the progeny of those B 
the young seems, in all of the species, to be per- | which were conveyed from Europe. The Hive B. pess 
formed exclusively by the females. Colletes succincta, | is said not to have been found to the west of the i 
a common British species of the Andrencte, affords | Mississippi before 1797, but in fourteen years it had $i% 
an example of a mode of nest-making, which, with | advanced 600 miles further in that direction. The L 
various modifications, is common to many species of | different species of Honey B. in a wild state generally i 
that section. The parent B. excavates a cylindrical | make their nests in hollow trees, or among the pids 
hole in the earth, usually horizontal, to the depth of | branches of trees, sometimes under ledges or in o 
about two inches, in a dry bank or a wall of stones | clefts of rocks; and their stores of honey are & 
and earth, The sides of this hole are compacted by | not only sought after by man, but afford food to 4 
798