Manual of the apiary

by Albert John Cook

Doubtless some of my readers have associated the quick movements and surprising activity of birds and most mammals with their well-developed lungs, so, too, in such animals as the bees, we see the relation between this intricate system of air-tubes—their lungs—and the quick, busy life which has been proverbial of them since the earliest time. The class Insecta also includes the spiders, scorpions, with their caudal sting so venomous, and mites, which have in lieu of the tubes, lung-like sacks, and the myriapods, or thousand-legged worms—those dreadful creatures, whose bite, in case of the tropical centipedes or flat species, have a well-earned reputation of being poisonous and deadly.

The class Insecta does not include the water-breathing Crustacea, with their branchiæ or gills, nor the worms, which have 110 lungs or gills but their skin, if we except some marine forms, which have simple dermal appendages, which, answer to branchiæ.

ORDER OF THE HONEY-BEE.

The honey-bee belongs to the order Hexapods, or true Insects. The first term is appropriate, as all have in the imago or last stage, six legs. Nor is the second term less applicable, as the word insect comes from the Latin and means to cut in, and in no other articulates does the ring structure appear 80 marked upon merely a superficial examination. More than this, the true insects when fully developed have, unlike all other articulates, three well-marked divisions of the body ([Fig, 2]), namely: the head ([Fig, 2, a]), which contains the antennæ ([Fig. 2, d]), the horn-like appendages common to all insects; eyes ([Fig. 2, e]) and mouth organs; the thorax ([Fig. 2, b]), which bears the legs ([Fig. 2, g]), and wings, when they are present; and lastly, the abdomen ([Fig. 2, c]), which, though usually memberless, contains the ovipositor, and when present, the sting. Insects, too, undergo a more striking metamorphosis than do most animals. When first hatched they are worm-like and called larvæ ([Fig, 12]), which means masked; afterward they are frequently quiescent, and would hardly be supposed to be animals at all. They are then known as pupæ, or as in case of bees as nymphs ([Fig, 13]). At last there comes forth the imago with compound eyes, antennæ and wings. In some insects the transformations are said to be incomplete, that is the larva, pupa and imago differ little except in size, and that the latter possesses wings. We see in our bugs, lice, locusts and grasshoppers, illustrations of insects with incomplete transformations. In such cases there is a marked resemblance from the egg to the adult.

As will be seen by the above description the spiders, which have only two divisions to their bodies, only simple eyes, no antennæ, eight legs, and no transformations (if we except the partial transformations of the mites), as also the myriapods, which have no marked divisions of the body, and no compound eyes—which are always present in the mature insect—many legs and no transformations, do not belong to the order Insects.

SUB-ORDER OF THE HONEY BEE.

The honey bee belongs to the sub-order Hymenoptera (from two Greek words meaning membrane and wings), which also includes the wasps, ants, ichneumon-flies and saw-flies. This group contains insects which possess a tongue by which they may suck ([Fig, 20, a]), and strong jaws ([Fig, 21]) for biting. Thus the bees can sip the honeyed sweets of flowers, and also gnaw away mutilated comb. They have, besides, four wings, and undergo complete transformations.

There are among insects strange resemblances. Insects of one sub-order will show a marked likeness to those of another. This is known as mimicry, and sometimes is wonderfully striking between very distant groups. Darwin and Wallace suppose it is a developed peculiarity, not always possessed by the species, and comes through the laws of variation, and natural selection to serve the purpose of protection. Now, right here we have a fine illustration of this mimicry. Just the other day I received through Mr. A. I. Root, an insect which he and the person sending it to him supposed to be a bee, and desired to know whether it was a mal-formed honey-bee or some other species. Now, this insect, though looking in a general way much like a bee, had only two wings, had no jaws, while its antennæ were closer together in front and mere stubs. In fact, it was no bee at all, but belonged to the sub-order Diptera, or two-wing flies. I have received several similar insects, with like inquiries. Among Diptera there are several families, as the Œstridæ or bot-flies, the Syrphidæ—a very useful family, as the larvæ or maggots live on plant-lice—whose members are often seen sipping sweets from flowers, or trying to rob honey and other bees—the one referred to above belonged to this family—and the Bombyliidæ, which in color, form and hairy covering are strikingly like wild and domesticated bees. The maggots of these feed on the larvæ of various of our wild bees, and of course the mother fly must steal into the nests of the latter to lay her eggs. So in these cases, there is seeming evidence that the mimicry may serve to protect these fly-tramps, as they steal in to pilfer the coveted sweets or lay the fatal eggs. Possibly, too, they may have a protective scent, as I have seen them enter a hive in safety, though a bumble-bee essaying to do the same, found the way barricaded with myriad cimeters each with a poisoned tip.

Some authors have placed Coleoptera or beetles as the highest of insects, others claim for Lepidoptera or butterflies and moths a first place, while others, and with the best of reasons, claim for Hymenoptera the highest position. The moth is admired for the glory of its coloring and elegance of its form, the beetle for the luster and brilliancy of its elytra or wing-covers; but these insects only revel in nature's wealth, and live and die without labor or purpose. Hymenoptera usually less gaudy, generally quite plain and unattractive in color, are yet the most highly endowed among insects. They live with a purpose in view, and are the best models of industry to be found among animals. Our bees practice a division of labor the ants are still better political economists, as they have a specially endowed class in the community who are the soldiers, and thus are the defenders of each ant-kingdom. Ants also conquer other communities, take their inhabitants captive and reduce them to abject slavery—requiring them to perform a large portion, and sometimes the whole labor of the community. Ants tunnel streams, and in the tropics some leaf-eating species have been observed to show no mean order of intelligence, as some ascend trees to cut off the leafy twigs, while others remain below, and carry these branches through their tunnels to their under-ground homes.

The parasitic Hymenoptera, are so called because they lay their eggs in other insects, that their offspring may have fresh meat not only at birth, but so long as they need food, as the insect fed upon generally lives till the young parasite, which is working to disembowel it, is full-grown. Thus this steak is ever fresh as life itself. These parasitic insects show wondrous intelligence, or sense development, in discovering this prey. I have caught ichneumon-flies—a family of these parasites—boring through an eighth or quarter-inch of solid beech or maple wood, and upon examination I found the prospective victim further on in direct line with the insect auger, which was to intrude the fatal egg. I have also watched ichneumon-flies depositing eggs in leaf-rolling caterpillars, so surrounded with tough hickory leaves that the fly had to pierce several thicknesses to place the egg in its snugly-ensconced victim. Upon putting these leaf-rolling caterpillars in a box, I reared, of course, the ichneumon-fly and not the moth. And is it instinct or reason that enables these flies to gauge the number of their eggs to the size of the larva which is to receive them, so that there may be no danger of famine and starvation, for true it is that while small caterpillars will receive but one egg, large ones may receive several. How strange, too, the habits of the saw-fly, with its wondrous instruments more perfect than any saws of human workmanship, and the gall-flies, whose poisonous sting as they fasten their eggs to the oak, willow or other leaves, causes the abnormal growth of food for the still unhatched young. The providing and caring for their young, which are at first helpless, is peculiar among insects, with slight exception, to the Hymenoptera, and among all animals is considered a mark of high rank. Such marvels of instinct, if we may not call it intelligence, such acumen of sense perception, such habits—that must go hand-in-hand with the most harmonious of communities known among animals, of whatever branch—all these, no less than the compact structure, small size and specialized organs of nicest finish, more than warrant that grand trio of American naturalists, Agassiz, Dana and Packard, in placing Hymenoptera as first in rank among insects. As we shall detail the structure and habits of the highest of the high—the bees—in the following pages, I am sure no one will think to degrade the rank of these wonders of the animal kingdom.