. Elementary textbook of economic zoology and entomology. Zoology; Insect pests. 186 ECONOMIC ZOOLOGY AND ENTOMOLOGY possess certain special structures or body modifications to enable them to perform certain special functions connected with their performance of the various industries characteristic of the species. These special structures will be described in some detail later when the various special industries are par- ticularly considered. In internal organization the workers differ from the queen in having the ovaries rudimentary, so that only in exceptional cases can workers produce ferti
. Elementary textbook of economic zoology and entomology. Zoology; Insect pests. 186 ECONOMIC ZOOLOGY AND ENTOMOLOGY possess certain special structures or body modifications to enable them to perform certain special functions connected with their performance of the various industries characteristic of the species. These special structures will be described in some detail later when the various special industries are par- ticularly considered. In internal organization the workers differ from the queen in having the ovaries rudimentary, so that only in exceptional cases can workers produce fertile eggs. In functions the three castes differ as they do in the social wasps and the bumble-bees, only more constantly; that is, the queen lays the eggs, never, as with the bumble-bees and social wasps, doing any food-gathering or nest- building; the males act simply as consorts for the queen, which means that only one of every thou- sand, perhaps, performs any neces- sary function at all in the commu- FIG. , Apis nal <*onomy; the workers build mcllifica. a, Queen; b, drone; c, brood- and food-cells, gather, pre- worker. (About jnatural size.) pare and store food, feed and otherwise care for the young, re- pair, clean, ventilate, and warm the hive, guard the entrance and repel invaders, feed the queen, control the production of new queens, and, with the aid of a queen, distribute the spe- cies, founding new communities, by swarming. The life history of a community is as follows: A "swarm" consisting of a queen and a number of workers (from two to twenty thousand or more), issues from a community nest and finds, through the efforts of a few of the workers, a place for a new nest. This is some sheltered hollow place, usually, through the intervention of the bee-keeper, another hive. Taking possession of this new nesting-place, the workers immediately begin to secrete wax and to build "comb," , double-tiered layers of waxen cells, usually as
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