Manual of the apiary

by Albert John Cook

FAMILY OF THE HONEY-BEE.

The honey-bee belongs to the family Apidæ, of Leach, which includes not only the hive bee, but all insects which feed their helpless young, or larvæ, entirely on pollen, or honey and pollen.

The insects of this family have broad heads, elbowed antennæ ([Fig, 2, d]) which are usually thirteen-jointed in the males, and only twelve-jointed in the females. The jaws or mandibles ([Fig, 21]) are very strong, and often toothed; the tongue or ligula ([Fig, 20, a]), as also the second jaws or maxillæ ([Fig. 20, c]), one each side the tongue, are long, though in some cases much shorter than in others, and frequently the tongue when not in use is folded back, once or more, under the head. All the insects of this family have a stiff spine on all four of the anterior legs, at the end of the tibia, or the third joint from the body, called the tibial spur, and all, except the genus Apis, which includes the honey-bee, in which the posterior legs have no tibial spurs, have two tibial spurs on the posterior legs. All of this family except one parasitic genus, have the first joint or tarsus of the posterior foot, much widened, and this together with the broad tibia ([Fig, 2, h]) is hollowed out ([Fig, 22, p]), forming quite a basin or basket on the outer side, in nearly all the species; and generally, this basket is made deeper by a rim of stiff hairs. These receptacles or pollen baskets are only found of course on such individuals of each community as gather pollen. A few of the Apidæ—thieves by nature—cuckoo-like, steal unbidden into the nests of others, usually bumble-bees, and here lay their eggs. As their young are fed and fostered by another, they gather no pollen, and hence like drone bees need not, and have not pollen baskets. The young of these lazy tramps, starve out the real insect babies of these homes, by eating their food, and in some cases, it is said, being unable like the young cuckoos to hurl these rightful children from the nest, they show an equal if not greater depravity by eating them, not waiting for starvation to get them out of the way. These parasites illustrate mimicry, already described, as they look so like the foster mothers of their own young, that unscientific eyes would often fail to distinguish them. Probably the bumble-bees are no sharper, or they would refuse ingress to these merciless vagrants.

The larvæ ([Fig, 12]) of all insects of this family are maggot-like—wrinkled, footless, tapering at both ends, and, as before stated, feed upon pollen and honey. They are helpless, and thus, all during their babyhood—the larvæ state—the time when all insects are most ravenous, and the only time when many insects take food, the time when all growth in size, except such enlargement as is required by egg-development, occurs, these infant bees have to be fed by their mothers or elder sisters. They have a mouth with soft lips, and weak jaws, yet it is doubtful if all or much of their food is taken in at this opening. There is some reason to believe that they, like many maggots—such as the Hessian-fly larvæ—absorb much of their food through the body walls. From the mouth leads the intestine, which has no anal opening. So there are no excreta other than gas and vapor. What commendation for their food, all capable of nourishment, and thus all assimilated.

To this family belongs the genus of stingless bees, Melipona, of Mexico and South America, which store honey not only in the hexagonal brood-cells, but in great wax reservoirs. They, like the unkept hive-bee, build in hollow logs. They are exceedingly numerous in each colony, and it has thus been thought that there were more than one queen. They are also very prodigal of wax, and thus may possess a prospective commercial importance in these days of artificial comb-foundation. In this genus the basal joint of the tarsus is triangular, and they have two submarginal cells, not three, to the front wings. They are also smaller than our common bees, and have wings that do not reach to the tip of their abdomens.

Another genus of stingless bees, the genus Trigona, have the wings longer than the abdomens, and their jaws toothed. These, unlike the Melipona, are not confined to the New World, but are met in Africa, India and Australasia. These build their combs in tall trees, fastening them to the branches much as does the Apis dorsata, soon to be mentioned.

Of course insects of the genus Bombus—our common bumble-bees—belong to this family. Here the tongue is very long, the bee large, the sting curved, with the barbs very short and few. Only the queen survives the winter. In spring she forms her nest under some sod or board, hollowing out a basin in the earth, and after storing a mass of bee-bread—probably a mixture of honey and pollen—she deposits several eggs in the mass. The larvæ so soon as hatched out, eat out thimble-shaped spaces, which in time become even larger, and not unlike in form the queen-cells of our hive-bees. When the bees issue from these cells the same are strengthened by wax. Later in the season these coarse wax cells become very numerous. Some may be made as cells and not termed as above. The wax is dark, and doubtless contains much pollen, as do the cappings and queen-cells of the honey-bees. At first the bees are all workers, later queens appear, and still later males. All, or nearly all, entomologists speak of two sizes of queen bumble-bees, the large and the small. The small appear early in the season, and the large late. A student of our College, Mr. N. P. Graham, who last year had a colony of bumble-bees in his room the whole season, thinks this an error. He believes that the individuals of the Bombus nest exactly correspond with those of the Apis. The queens, like those of bees, are smaller before mating and active laying. May not this be another case like that of the two kinds of worker-bees which deceived even Huber, an error consequent upon lack of careful and prolonged observation?

In Xylocopa or the carpenter-bees, which much resemble the bumble-bees, we have a fine example of a boring insect. With its strong mandibles or jaws it cuts long tunnels, often one or two feet long in the hardest wood. These burrows are divided by chip partitions into cells, and in each cell is left the bee-bread and an egg.

The mason-bee—well named—constructs cells of earth and gravel, which by aid of its spittle it has power to cement, so that they are harder than brick.

The tailor or leaf-cutting bees, of the genus Megachile, make wonderful cells from variously shaped pieces of leaves. These are always mathematical in form, usually circular and oblong, and are cut—by the insect's making scissors of its jaws—from various leaves, the rose being a favorite. I have found these cells made almost wholly of the petals or flower leaves of the rose. The cells are made by gluing these leaf-sections in concentric layers, letting them over-lap. The oblong sections form the walls of the cylinder, while the circular pieces are crowded as we press circular wads into our shot-guns, and are used at the ends or for partitions where several cells are placed together. When complete, the single cells are in form and size much like a revolver cartridge. When several are placed together, which is usually the case, they are arranged end to end, and in size and form are quite like a small stick of candy, though not more than one-third as long. These cells I have found in the grass, partially buried in the earth, in crevices, and in one case knew of their being built in the folds of a partially-knit sock, which a good house-wife had chanced to leave stationary for some days. These leaf-cutters have rows of hairs underneath, with which they carry pollen. I have noticed them each summer for some years swarming on the Virginia creeper, often called woodbine, while in blossom, in quest of pollen, though I never saw a single hive-bee on these vines. The tailor-bees often cut the foliage of the same vines quite badly.