[135] As every reader is not aware of the differences of form, &c. that distinguish the females, males, and workers from each other (I have seen the male mistaken for a distinct species, and placed in a cabinet as Apis lagopoda, L.), I shall here subjoin a description of each.—
i. The body of the Female bee is considerably longer than that of either the drone or the worker. The prevailing colour in all three is the same, black or black-brown; but with respect to the female this does not appear to be invariably the case; for—not to insist upon Virgil's royal bees glittering with ruddy or golden spots and scales, where allowance must be made for poetic licence—Reaumur affirms, after describing some differences of colour in different individuals of this sex, that a queen may always be distinguished, both from the workers and males, by the colour of her body[136]. If this observation be restricted to the colour of some parts of her body, it is correct; but it will not apply to all generally (unless, as I suspect may be the case, by the term body he means the abdomen), for, in all that I have had an opportunity of examining, the prevailing colour, as I have stated it, is the same.
The head is not larger than that of the workers; but the tongue is shorter and more slender, with straighter maxillæ. The mandibles are forficate, and do not jut out like theirs into a prominent angle; they are of the colour of pitch with a red tinge, and terminate in two teeth, the exterior being acute, and the interior blunt or truncated. The labrum or upper-lip is fulvous; and the antennæ are piceous.
In the trunk, the tegulæ or scales that defend the base of the wings are rufo-piceous. The wings reach only to the tip of the third abdominal segment. The tarsi and the apex of the tibiæ are rufo-fulvous. The posterior tibiæ are plane above and covered with short adpressed hairs, having neither the corbicula (or marginal fringe of hairs for carrying the masses of pollen) nor the pecten; and the posterior plantæ have neither the brush formed of hairs set in striæ, nor the auricle at the base.
The abdomen is considerably longer than the head and trunk taken together, receding from the trunk, elongato-conical, and rather sharp at the anus. The dorsal segments are fulvous at the tip; covered with very short, pallid, and, in certain lights, shining adpressed hairs; the first segment being very short, and covered with longer hairs. The ventral segments, except the anal, which is black, are fulvescent or rufo-fulvous, and covered with soft longer hairs. The vagina of the spicula (commonly called the sting) is curved.
ii. The Male bee, or drone, is quite the reverse of his royal paramour; his body being thick, short, and clumsy, and very obtuse at each extremity[137]. It is covered also, as to the head and trunk, with dense hairs.
The head is depressed and orbicular. The tongue is shorter and more slender than that of the female; and the mandibles, though nearly of the same shape, are smaller. The eyes are very large, meeting at the back part of the head. In the space between them are placed the antennæ and stemmata. The former consist of fourteen joints, including the radicle, the fourth and fifth being very short and not easily distinguished.
The trunk is large. The wings are longer than the body. The legs are short and slender. The posterior tibiæ are long, club-shaped, and covered with inconspicuous hairs. The posterior plantæ are furnished underneath with thick-set scopulæ, which they use to brush their bodies.
The claw-joints are fulvescent.
The abdomen is cordate, very short, being scarcely so long as the head and trunk together, consisting of seven segments, which are fulvous at their apex. The first segment is longer than any of the succeeding ones, and covered above with rather long hairs. The second and third dorsal segments are apparently naked; but under a triple lens, in a certain light, some adpressed hairs may be perceived;—the remaining ones are hairy, the three last being inflexed. The ventral segments are very narrow, hairy, and fulvous.