Ex LIBRIS
UNIVERSITATIS
ALBERTENSIS
ria 3t^#
I
No.
BEES, WASPS, AND ANTS
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Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2016 with funding from
University of, Alberta Libraries
https://archive.org/details/beeswaspsantsOOdunc
BUMBLE BEE GATHERING HONEY
UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
CONTENTS
PAGE
I. The Home of the Honey Bee — The Hive
AND ITS Busy Inmates ... 7
II. Workers and Drones — The Worker’s
Tools — The Life and Sad Fate of the
Drones . . . . . . 13
III. The Life of a Worker Bee— Care of
the Queen — Baby Bees — A Worker’s
First Days in the Hive . . . 21
IV. How THE Bees Swarm — Royal Cells —
The Angry Queen — The Bees Swarm
— The New City .... 28
V. Queen of the Hive — A Neglected
Princess — Her First Flight — The
New Queen ..... 37
VI. Bumble Bees — Bees and Flowers — The
Nest of the Bumble Bees — The Queen
Mother ...... 43
VII. Solitary Bees — The Leaf-Cutting Bees —
Miner Bees — The Carder, Carpenter,
AND Mason Bees. . . . . 51
VI
CONTENTS
PAGE
VIII. Wasps and their Ways — The Queen
Wasp — The Nest — The Workers —
Baby Wasps — The Little Hunters —
The End of the Colony ... 59
IX. Social and Solitary Wasps — Hornets —
Wood Wasps — Sand Wasps . . 67
X. The Little People — Ants and their
Ways — Slave - Making Ants — Robber
Ants, etc. ...... 76
CHAPTER I
THE HOME OF THE HONEY BEE
Have you ever stood by a bee-hive on a
warm summer morning, listened to the deep
hum of the bees, and watched the busy little
inhabitants as they hurry in and out of the
hive ?
You need not be afraid to watch them so
long as it is not a windy or a thundery day —
both wind and thunder upset the little people,
making them bad-tempered and inclined to
sting anyone who comes in their way. On a
bright summer day, with the hot sun shining,
the bees are quite good-tempered, and far
too busy to waste their time in stinging,
unless they are annoyed. We must not, of
course, stand right in front of the hive, so as
to block the entrance and prevent the bees
flying straight in and out ; but if we stand
just a little to one side, and do not fidget about,
the bees will not mind us and we need have no
fear.
7
8
BEES, WASPS AND ANTS
At first as we watch the busy hive all seems
bustle and confusion. Thousands of little
black bees are buzzing in and out, while the
air is alive with the deep humming note of
the throngs of hurrying little creatures. But
the bees are not really just dashing in and out
of the hive in a reckless fashion, or buzzing
round and round in a merry, airy dance. We
soon see that there are two steady streams
of bees — one coming out and the other going
into the hive.
The bees coming out of the hive rise up at
once into the air and are off and away with a
swift, strong flight to the flowering meadows,
the clover fields, or to the orchards when
they are in bloom.
The home-coming bees fly more slowly,
for they are heavily laden with their spoils.
Some have their honey-bags filled with sweet
nectar, gathered from the flowers ; some carry
balls of pollen — golden, orange, pale yellow,
white, or brown, according to the flowers upon
which they have been at work ; other bees
are water-carriers, and are carrying home
supphes of water from the nearest stream to
the workers inside the hive.
As soon as the bees enter the hive they
THE HOME OF THE HONEY BEE 9
waste no time, but give up the honey, or water,
or pollen, to the first stay-at-home bee they
meet, then at once they hurry off again to
fetch another load.
Inside the hive the bees are just as busy ;
here " all sorts of work is going on. At the
entrance are the sentinels guarding the city
gates. They know the rightful citizens and
allow them to pass in and out without ques-
tion ; but no strange bee is permitted to enter
the hive, unless she brings a present of honey
or pollen. Then the guards will let her pass
in to give up her present to one of the house
bees and go out again unharmed.
There are rows of bees standing on the
alighting board with their heads turned
towards the hive, all fanning their wings as
fast as they can go. They are ventilating
the hive, driving in a current of fresh cool air,
to prevent it growing too hot within. A
certain number of bees take turns at this
work. Every now and then one will stop
fanning and fall out of the rank, and another
bee immediately takes her place. In the
summer time the fanning never ceases, but is
kept up night and day ; and the wings of the
little creatures make such a strong draught
roadways running between them along which
the bees pass up and down on their daily task.
Hundreds of bees are at work here, not all
doing the same thing ; each bee has her own
special business to attend to, she knows what
10 BEES, WASPS AND ANTS
that if a lighted candle is brought near it will
be blown out !
Inside the hive great walls of comb stretch
from the roof almost to the floor, with narrow
BKES REMOVING A FLOWER FROM THE ALIGHTING BOARD
OF THE HIVE.
THE HOME OF THE HONEY BEE 11
she has to do and works away at her task
without any fuss or confusion.
Gangs of carrier bees hurry up and down
the roadways with loads of pollen to be stored
in special pollen bins, or nectar for the honey
makers ; housemaids are hard at work clear-
ing away every scrap of refuse, carrying it
out of the gates and dropping it over the
edge of the foot board. No untidiness, not
a single speck of dust or dirt is allowed in the
bee city ; and if a leaf or a flower falls upon
the alighting board, at once a httle troop of
bees comes hurrying from the hive, and pulls
and pushes and tugs at it until at last it is
tipped over the edge.
In one corner of the hive a number of bees
are busy making wax ; elsewhere the builders
and masons of the city are building new comb.
In the upper stories of the hive the honey-
makers are at work pouring the sweet syrup
into the honey-comb, while others are sealing
the cells, that are already filled, with a lid of
wax.
In the centre of the combs, the warmest
place in the hive, are the nurseries, and here
the nurses are looking after the baby bees.
They pass from cell to cell and feed all the
12
BEES, WASPS AND ANTS
hungry children, who open their; mouths just
as little birds do when mother bird brings a
nice fat caterpillar to the nest. The, youngest
babies are fed with “ bee-milk,” a thick, white
syrup made , from honey and pollen, but the
older children are given honey alone. Nurse-
maids are busy cleaning out empty cells in
readiness for the queen when she next comes
round to lay eggs in them; and a bevy of
bees are attending on her Majesty, never
leaving her for a moment, as she moves slowly
over the brood combs, laying a tiny egg in
each cell as she passes by.
And so in the busy city of the honey bees
the work goes steadily on all through the long
summer days, while outside in the sunshine
the foragers are hurrying backwards and
forwards bringing in fresh supplies of food to
the hive ; but should the clouds gather in
the sky, home they all flock, and the hive is
soon crowded from floor to ceiling. You
would think that those bees who had been out
and about collecting honey and pollen, and
carrying their heavy loads home to the hive,
would now take a well-earned rest. But no,
after they have refreshed themselves with a
little honey and pollen, from the cells that
WORKERS AND DRONES
13
are left open for the general use of the hive,
they set to work to help the house bees in
every way they can. Never were such busy,
energetic little people !
CHAPTER II
WORKERS AND DRONES
In every hive there are three kinds of bees —
The worker bees, who do all the work.
The drones, who do
no work at all.
And the queen bee
who is the mother of
the hive.
The worker bee is
but a homely-looking
little insect, dressed in
a sober suit of darkest
brown. Nevertheless, queen bee,
. ^ WORKEK., AND DRONE.
she IS a truly wonder-
ful little creature, every part of her small,
trim body has its own special use. She is
armed with a sharp poisoned dagger to defend
14
BEES, WASPS AND ANTS
herself against all comers, and she carries a
regular set of tools to help her in all her
different kinds of work.
Each Worker bee has :
A sucking tube for drawing up the nectar
from the flowers.
A honey bag to carry it home in.
Pollen baskets to hold the pollen.
Brushes and combs.
A strong, sharp pair of shears.
And a number of pockets to hold wax.
The shears are the bee’s jaws, two strong
blades which work sideways like a pair of
scissors. With
these she clips off
httle pieces of wax
and moulds them
into shape when
she is at work
building the honey-
comb.
Her brushes and
combs she carries
on her legs (a bee
has, of course, six legs as all insects have) ;
each leg has no less than nine joints, and on
nearly every joint is a brush of stiff bristles.
THE BEE S BRUSH AND COMB.
THE HOME OF THE HONEY BEE
A SWARM OF BEES
WORKERS AND DRONES 15
/
while the hind legs are furnished with a perfect
little curry comb.
The bee’s hind legs are different from the
other two pairs ; they are longet; and the upper
part is much broader and hollowed .out like
a spoon. Round the hollow^ are rows of stiff
bristles, curving
inwards, making a
handy basket for
“ Miss Bee ” to
carry the pollen
in. When she
dives head-long
into a flower, such
as a Canterbury
bell, a larkspur,
or a foxglove, her
whole hairy little body is covered with a
shower of fine pollen dust. Then out she
comes again, carefully brushes and combs the*
pollen out of her hair, and, after moistening
it with her tongue and kneading it into a ball,
she packs it into her pollen basket.
When collecting honey the bee uses her
sucking tube. This is really a very long under-
lip which looks rather like an elephant’s trunk.
The trunk is pushed down into the narrow
THE bee’s pollen BASKET.
16
BESS, WASPS AND ANTS
tubes of the flowers, and the sweet nectar is
drawn up into the bee’s mouth ; it then passes
down her throat into the honey bag, and so is
carried home to the hive.
Besides all these tools the bee has four
gauzy wings ; strong enough, although they
look so frail, to bear her quite long distances
through the air. A
bee will often fly
as far as two or
three miles from
the hive to fetch
honey and pollen
if there are no good
collecting grounds
nearer home. On
each hind wing is a
row of tiny hooks
which (when the
bee is flying) hook into a fold in the lower
edge of the front wing, joining them firmly
together. So the two wings move as one,
giving the bee a stronger, swifter flight than
if they worked separately in a fluttering
fashion.
The bee’s eyes are two great globes, one on
each side of her head. They are called com-
WORKERS AND DRONES
17
pound eyes, because they are cut up into
thousands of tiny windows, like the facets
of a diamond, each one slanting in a slightly
different direction ; so the bee can see all ways
at once without the trouble of turning her
head. With these big eyes she finds her way
across country and home again, but in the
dim light of the
hive they are not
much use to her, so
on her forehead she
has three simple
eyes, just tiny
specks of light to
guide her about the
city. But the bee
does not depend for
guidance on her
eyes alone ; when going about her different
tasks she constantly touches and feels every-
thing that comes in her way with her antennae
— the two httle feelers in front of her head.
The bee’s sting is a wonderful little weapon.
It is a tiny sword with three blades. Each
blade has a barbed edge, and at the base of
the sting is a httle poison bag. When the
sword is not in use, the three blades fit closely
B
18
BEES, WASPS AND ANTS
together, but when Miss Bee plunges it into an
enemy they separate, and at the same time
each blade is drenched with a burning fluid
from the poison bag. No wonder the sting
of a bee is so painful !
The drone is much larger than the worker
bee, and he spends his life in quite a different
, way. While his
industrious sisters
toil from morning
till night the whole
summer through
the great idle drone
does nothing but
enjoy himself. Not
a thing does he do
to help in the work
of the bee city, but
he sleeps and eats, and blunders in and out
of the hive, rudely bumping into the workers
as they pass to and fro with their loads of
honey and pollen.
The worker bees are abroad quite early
on a summer’s morning, but the drones
never leave the hive until the sun has
had time to warm the day. They pass the
early morning hours indoors, comfortably
THE STING OF A BEE.
WORKERS AND DRONES
19
sleeping in the warmest corners of the hive,
helping themselves to pollen and honey from
the common provision cells, or getting in
the way of the worker bees. Then about noon
out they all rush with a great, booming noise,
dance madly round the hive for a minute or
two, and then fly gaily off to sport and play
in the sunshine.
The drone is always scorned for his lazy,
useless ways, but it is hardly fair to blame
him altogether, for, as a matter of fact, he could
not work even if he wished to. The drone
has no tools, as the worker bee has ; he has no
brushes and combs, no pollen baskets, no wax
glands, and his trunk is not long enough to
draw up the nectar from the flower. He is
altogether a helpless creature ; he cannot even
feed himself entirely, for although he greedily
laps up far more than his own share of honey
from the honey combs, this sweet food does
not satisfy him ; so the tiresome fellow is
always worrying the house bees for bee milk,
and he sits up to be fed like a great big baby !
Although he is such a big, burly fellow, the
drone is no match for the little worker bee,
for he has no sting, and from so long being
idle and lazy he has become stupid too. Yet
20
BEES, WASPS AND ANTS
all through the summer days the workers
patiently feed the drones and put up with
their tiresome, blundering ways. But they
do not love their lazy brothers, and when
the days begin to grow shorter the bees know
that autumn is approaching, when nectar
and pollen will become so scarce they will no
longer be able to gather enough to feed all
the drones and workers in the hive.
Then the workers hold a council, and deter-
mine that no longer shall the useless members
of the hive be allowed to waste the provisions
of the city. Winter is approaching, and all
the stores will be needed to keep the useful
citizens alive to carry on the work of the hive
in the following year. The drones must go.
So first the workers go to the drone cells,
in which the baby drones are lying. They
seize the little things in their jaws and carry
them out of the hive. Then they turn upon
the unfortunate drones, and, in spite of their
protests, they drive them from the city. The
bees do not sting the drones ; they hustle and
push and drag them to the gates, bite through
one wing so that they will not be able to fly
back again, and tumble them over the edge
of the foot-board.
THE LIFE OF A WORKER BEE 21
The poor drones are terrified, and struggle
madly with their assailants. A few manage
to escape and fly away, but this does not help
them; they cannot gather nectar for them-
selves, so hunger soon drives them back to
the hive. There they find a number of
workers guarding the city gates, who drive
them off again, or fall upon them and tear
their wings. So the poor drones all die of
cold or hunger — not one is left.
We cannot help feeling sorry for the drones,
who have led such a gay and careless life
until this terrible fate overtakes them. It
seems cruel to us that they should be killed
in this way. But the bees, although they
show no mercy, are perfectly just and wise.
Their one care is the welfare of the city. To
save the workers from starvation the drones
must go, for the bees cannot afford to keep
idlers through the winter.
CHAPTER III
THE LIFE OF A WORKER BEE
The queen bee is the most important person
in the bee city. She is the mother of the
BEES, WASPS AND ANTS
hive, and all the bees in it are her children.
Although she is called a “ queen ” she does
not rule the hive ; the worker bees are the true
rulers ; they plan and carry out all the work
and settle all the affairs of the city ; they
guard the queen, and tell her what to do.
The queen’s work is to lay the eggs, so that, as
the workers die, worn out with constant toil,
there are always others to take their places
and carry on the life in the hive.
The queen is bigger than the worker bees ;
she is about the same size as a drone, but her
body is longer. Her wings are shorter than
the workers’, and her sting is very long and
curved, and has no poison bag.
The workers treat the queen with great
respect and kindness. She has always a
circle of attendants waiting upon her. They
feed her from their mouths with rich bee-
milk, they attend to her toilet, keeping her
always brushed and neat, and they gently
lead her over the combs prepared for her, so
that she may lay an egg in each cell.
In the early spring, when food is scarce,
the queen lays only a few eggs at a time ;
but later in the year, when there is an abund-
ance of nectar and pollen, she may lay as many
THE LIFE OF A WORKER BEE 23
as two or three thousand eggs a day, for
there is then much work to be done, and many
workers are needed in the bee city.
In two or three days’ time the tiny eggs
hatch, and the wee bee babies lie curled up,
each one at the bottom
of its own little waxen
chamber. A baby
bee is no more like a
grown-up bee than a
caterpillar is like a
butterfly. It is just
a fat, white, legless
grub, and is called a
“larva.” Baby bees
are very different in
their ways from baby
butterflies. A cater-
pillar, as you know,
and able to take care of itself from the
first moment it makes its appearance in the
world ; but a bee larva is a helpless little
thing, and v/ould quickly die if there were no
kind nurses to look after it.
From time to time the nurse bees come
round and peep into the cells to see how the
babies are getting on. They feed them with
A BABY BEE (MAGNIFIED).
is quite independent
24
BEES, WASPS AND ANTS
bee milk, pouring it into the cells so that the
tiny creatures are actually bathed in the sweet,
white juice ; but this rich food is only given
to the babies for the first few days ; as they
grow bigger they are fed with plain honey and
pollen instead.
The babies grow very quickly, and soon
stretch themselves out in their cells with
their heads towards the open end. They are
very hungry little things, and open their
mouths eagerly to be fed whenever a bee
comes near ; but the nurses will not allow
them to have more than they think is good
for them. They take good care of the children,
but never spoil them.
When five days have passed, and the little
creatures have grown so fat that they fill up
the whole of their cells, the nurses stop feeding
the babies, and shut them up in their cells
by fitting a neat little lid of wax mixed with
pollen over the top of each one. Then, when
it finds there is no more food forthcoming,
each little prisoner sets to work to spin itself
a tiny silken nightgown, and when this is
finished it goes comfortably to sleep.
The larva now changes to a pupa — just as
a caterpillar does before it becomes a butter-
THE LIFE OF A WORKER BEE 25
fly. It rests quietly in its cell while its shape
is gradually changing, its wings and its legs
grow, and all its different parts are formed ;
and in three weeks from the time when it first
came out of the egg, it has become a perfect
bee.
The first thing the bee does is to gnaw the
lid of wax and pollen that shuts it in, and,
finding this good to eat, she very soon finishes
it all up and is then free to crawl out of her
cell. The new bee is a pale greyish colour ;
she is very weak, and her legs are so shaky
they bend beneath her weight ; but almost
at once she begins to make herself clean and
tidy, she smooths her wings, rubs her eyes, and
brushes and combs herself all over. One of
the nurse bees generally comes up to help her,
and when her toilet is finished, the new bee
sets off to explore the city and have a good
look round.
For the first day or two, she does nothing
but wander about up and down the roadways,
watching the throngs of busy workers that fill
the hive. She finds the open honey vats and
poUen bins and helps herself to some of their
contents, and in a very short time the little
bee grows strong, her legs become quite firm,
26
BEES, WASPS AND ANTS
and she is ready to take her place amongst the
workers of the hive.
The new bee has a great deal to learn. She
does not at first go out to gather honey and
pollen, but stays at home and takes her part
in all the work within the hive. She makes a
few mistakes at first, but she is quick and
willing, and the older bees show her what she
has to do, so she is soon as useful as any of
them. It is the young bees who act as nurses
and cleaners. They make the wax, and build
the combs ; they feed the drones, and take
turns in waiting on the queen. A bee does
not, as a rule, go out for her first flight until
she is a fortnight old ; but if the stores are
scanty, and there are not enough older bees
to gather sufficient food for the hive, she may
be sent out to help forage at once.
The first flight is a most important event
in the life of a bee. Before setting out she
grooms herself with great care, and several
comrades will often help to brush her and
make her neat and trim. Then with a happy
little flutter of her wings she rises into the
soft, warm air, pauses for a moment while
she surveys the surroundings of the hive,
carefully noting any landmark that may help
THE LIFE OF A WORKER BEE 27
her to recognise her home again, then away
she speeds, anxious to fill her baskets with
golden pollen or her honey bag with sweet
nectar, and return in triumph with her spoils.
She is not quite sure of what she has to do
at first ; she has to learn this part of her work
just as she had to learn the indoor work of
the hive. And whenever you see a worker bee
busily hunting over tufts of grass, peering
anxiously under leaves, or poking her head
into holes and cracks in garden walls, you
may be sure that she is a young bee just
starting her outdoor work, and does not yet
know the right places to look for pollen and
nectar. But the wise little bee is quick to
learn her lesson ; a few experiments teach her
where the treasures lie hidden. She soon
discovers that she must visit the flowers for
the golden pollen and the sweet nectar which
lies deep within their cups.
And so the honey bee toils on through the
bright spring and hot summer days. Butter-
flies flit gaily here and there in the sunshine ;
thoughtless flies dance madly up and down ;
and thousands of tiny insect folk bask lazily
in the sun’s warm rays or feast upon the fruit
and flowers. But the honey bee takes no rest
28
BEES, WASPS AND ANTS
or holiday ; she works away with restless,
almost furious, haste, until at last, after six
or eight weeks of constant toil, she can work
no more. Worn out with her labours she falls
exhausted at her post.
It seems a hard life that the little bee lives,
but who shall say it is not a happy one ? She
takes pride and pleasure in her work, and her
whole life is spent in the service of others.
Unselfish, busy little bee ! In spite of her
many faults — her quick temper and her ruth-
less ways — we cannot but admire her.
CHAPTER IV
HOW THE BEES SWARM
Early in the year only worker bees are
hatched from the eggs laid by the queen bee ;
for there is much work ahead, and many
workers are needed to gather in the coming
harvest of pollen and nectar. As spring
advances eggs are laid in the drone cells, which
are larger than the cells for the worker bees.
Then when the hive is almost full of busy
workers and blundering drones, the bees set
HOW THE BEES SWARM
29
to work to make a few new cells, much larger,
and quite different in shape from the ordinary
kind — they look somewhat like thimbles, or
acorn cups, turned upside down. These are
“ royal cells,” and in them are placed the
eggs from which in due time will come royal
princesses.
The nurses treat the baby princesses quite
differently from the worker babies ; instead
of “ short commons ” they give these royal
children as much food as they can possibly
eat. They pour bee milk into the royal
cells until the little princesses are positively
swimming in it ! and the rich milk is given
to them all the time they are larvag ; so the
royal babies wax fat, and grow much bigger
than their worker sisters.
But even princesses must stop eating at
last, and when five days have passed the
nurses close the royal cells and, like their
worker sisters, the royal babies begin to weave
themselves sleeping garments. The spoilt
princesses, however, soon grow tired of work,
so they stop short, and fall asleep, when they
have fashioned a sort of cape only just large
enough to cover their heads and shoulders.
When the princesses are ready to leave their
30
BEES, WASPS AND ANTS
cells, the old queen grows very restless and
excited. Even the sight of a royal cell annoys
her majesty; and when, at last, she hears a
shrill, piping sound coming from within,
showing that a young princess has awakened
from her pupa sleep and is trying to break out
of her prison, she flies into a perfect passion,
and rushes towards the cell, eager to tear it
open and stab her poor daughter to death.
But this the bees will not allow. A guard
of workers draws up round the royal cell and
bars the way of the angry queen ; and as fast
as the impatient princess tries to break her
way out, the workers plaster up the door again
with fresh wax; so, in spite of her struggles
and cries, she is kept a prisoner.
The old queen grows perfectly furious, and
rushes frantically about the hive ; and soon
a regular wave of excitement runs through
the bee city. Workers leave their tasks,
flock to the store room and fill their bags
with as much honey as they can hold, and
buzz wildly in and out of the hive. At last
it becomes so hot, and the confusion is so
great, they can stand the heat and excite-
ment no longer, and they rush forth helter-
HOW THE BEES SWARM
31
skelter, with the old queen in their midst.
The bees have swarmed !
Really the bees seem all to have gone mad.
Standing in the midst of a swarm is like
being in a storm of black snow. The air is
filled with hundreds, sometimes thousands, of
wildly whirling little creatures, all singing as
loud as they possibly can. You need not
fear being stung by bees when they are
swarming, as they have all drunk so much
honey they have no desire to sting. Soon, with
one accord, the bees mount higher and higher
into the air, till the swarm looks like a little
dark, drifting cloud in the sky. But the
queen is heavy, and her wings are not so
strong as a worker bee’s. She tires, sinks
earthward again, and settles on a branch of
the nearest tree. The bees all follow and
quickly gather round her, and a cluster of bees
begin to form on the branch. It grows and
grows, until at last the swarm hangs down
like a big bunch of black grapes.
The bees are quiet now. Their wild excite-
ment is over. They have lost their home,
for they can never go back. Now they must
seek a new one.
If a bee-keeper is near, this matter is settled
BEES, WASPS AND ANTS
for the bees, for he will take a straw hive,
called a skep, and, holding it under the cluster
of bees, give the branch to which they are
hanging a sudden, sharp shake, and the bunch
of bees falls into the skep. Later on, the bee-
keeper will transfer the bees to a wooden
hive. He shakes them out of the skep in
front of their new home, and as soon as the
bees have decided that the hive is a good one,
and will make a nice bee city, they all stream
in and take possession of it.
But what if the swarm has flown too far
from the old home, and there is no one at hand
to provide them with a new one ? Then the
bees send off scouts to scour the country
round in search of a new dwelhng-place.
The scout bees hunt about the neighbourhood,
and then fly back to the swarm, which is still
clustering round the queen, to report what
they have found. As soon as the news comes
in that a satisfactory home has been dis-
covered, all the bees, with the queen still in
their midst, troop off and take possession of
their new abode. If no comfortable hive is
to be had, the bees must needs be content with
a hollow tree-trunk, or any hole large enough
to accommodate the whole party ; but if they
HOW THE BEES SWARM SS
can find a vacant hive, or an old straw skep,
the swarm is almost certain to enter it.
But what a different place is the empty
hive from the comfortable, prosperous city
the bees have forsaken ! Here are no walls
or roadways, no nurseries, no stores of food.
BEES AT WORK ON THE COMB.
The bees have now to begin their work all
over again.
The first thing to be done is to make combs,
some for the queen to lay eggs in, and others
to be stored with honey and pollen to feed
all the members of the hive. The bees
waste no time in useless complaints, but all
set to work to help build the new city. A
number of young bees begin to make the
wax ; they climb up to the top of the hive,
c
34
BEES, WASPS AND ANTS
and then hang down in a cluster. The bees
in the first row cling to the roof and the rest
cling to one another, until a regular curtain
of bees, reaching almost to the floor, stretches
across the hive.
While they hang there, motionless, these
wonderful little creatures are turning the
honey, with which they filled their honey-
bags before leaving the old home, into wax.
In about twenty-four hours’ time their pockets
will be filled ; and each little worker will
have six delicate white wafers sticking out
of her six little pockets, like so many tiny
pocket handkerchiefs.
As soon as a bee has her pockets filled with
wax, she leaves her place in the cluster,
takes the wafers from her pockets with the
wax nippers on her hind legs and kneads
them in her jaws till the wax is quite soft
and pliable. As fast as they are ready the
little lumps of wax are fixed to the roof of
the hive, and the builders can begin to form
the foundations of the combs.
In modern beehives, frames containing wax
foundations are always placed in readiness
for the bees ; this saves the little workers
much time, as they can begin to form the
HOW THE BEES SWARM 35
combs at once, and the bee-keeper will have
his sections filled sooner.
The combs are built downwards from the
roof of the hive, with just sufficient space
between them to allow the bees to pass
easily up and down. Each comb is composed
■ ipf*^pr # ■ I ' 1^. I *-. f
SECTION OF HONEYCOMB, SHOWING HOW PERFECTLY THE BEES
FORM THE CELLS.
of a double row of cells placed back to back,
so that the same foundation forms the bases
of two sets of cells. Each cell is a long,
narrow chamber, with six sides, every side
forming a wall of two cells ; so not an atom
of space or wax is wasted. If the cells were
round there would be waste spaces between
36
BEES, WASPS AND ANTS
them, and if they were not placed back to back
double the amount of foundation would be
needed. In fact, the comb made by the little
honey bee is so perfectly planned that man
with all his scientific knowledge can think of
no way by which it could be improved.
While the building of the city is in progress
a number of bees set forth to fetch provisions
and water for the workers in the hive ; each
bee before she departs taking careful note
of the position of her new home so that she
may be able to find her way back again.
Before long they come hurrying back, some
carrying nectar, some pollen, and some bear-
ing a lump of reddish-brown, sticky stuff,
called “ propolis,” a kind of resin they find
in the bark of many trees. With this they
carefully fill up every crack or hole they find
in the hive to prevent any rain or cold draught
coming in, and so make all snug and com-
fortable. If the hive is a straw one the bees
glue it firmly to its base-board with the pro-
polis, and this is used, too, to make a varnish
with which the honey combs are painted.
So hard do the bees work to build and
furnish their new home, that in a surpris-
ingly short time the queen is again going her
QUEEN OF THE HIVE
37
daily round attended by her maids of honour,
the cells are being stored with honey and pollen,
and work in the new bee city is in full swing.
CHAPTER V
QUEEN OF THE HIVE
But what has been happening in the old hive
since the queen and the swarm flew so wildly
away ? There are still many workers left,
for all the bees did not rush from their home
in this strange manner, and as soon as all is
quiet again they return once more to their
work.
But now there is no queen in the hive, and
this state of affairs cannot continue for long.
For if no eggs are laid there will be no new
bees ; and, as the old workers die off, the
hive will gradually become empty. The bees
must have a new queen without delay ; and
in the royal cells two or three princesses are
quite ready to come forth, and are impatiently
striving to break through their waxen door,
every now and then giving vent to the shrill
piping cry that so enraged the mother queen.
38
BEES, WASPS AND ANTS
So the bees decide to let thejeldest princess
out of her cell, but no sooner is she liberated
than she behaves just as the old queen did.
The sound of her sisters’ voices fills her with
rage, and she rushes at the cells in which they
are still kept prisoners, and struggles to pass
the guard so that she may kill the other
princesses.
But this the workers will not allow ; they
push and pull the princess away without
any ceremony. They wiU stand no nonsense
from her, and she is made to understand that
she cannot do as she pleases ; the bees even
pinch and bite the angry young princess if
she wiU not obey them. If there is still a
great number of bees in the hive the princess
may be allowed to fly off with a second swarm
(called a cast), and then another one is re-
leased from her cell. But if the bees have
had enough of swarming they just hustle the
princess about, and go on with the work of
the hive.
The princess is very forlorn. She is not
allowed to kill her sisters, which is the one
thing above all others she longs to do, no
one pays her any attention or offers her food,
and she is hustled and pushed about by the
QUEEN OF THE HIVE
39
worker bees as if she is of no account what-
ever. So the princess wanders sadly about
the hive, she is obliged to help herself to food
from the common stores, and she feels very
lonely and miserable. At last she ventures
out of the city gates and takes her first look
at the outside world. She hesitates, flutters
her wings, then starts off on her first flight ;
but bewildered by the strong light and the
vast world around her she soon returns and
creeps back into the hive. Two or three
times she takes short flights as if she were
testing the power of her wings, and each
time she grows a httle bolder. Then at last
the princess makes up her mind to go off on
her wedding flight, for until she is married
she cannot become queen of the hive, and the
bees will pay her no respect.
So one spring day, when the sun is shining
his brightest, the princess comes from the hive,
hovers above her home for an instant, then
darts aloft into the blue of the sky. The
drones from all the hives near by spy the
princess, and at once they all speed after her.
Up and up flies the princess, and up and up
fly the drones, for the princess will choose for
her mate the drone who proves strongest and
40
BEES, WASPS AND ANTS
swiftest in the race. One by one the drones
tire and drop back to earth, until at last only
one is left, and the princess and the victor
vanish from sight.
After awhile the princess comes down from
the sky again, and returns alone to the hive.
Now the worker bees hasten to welcome her
and pay her every kind attention. They
brush her, smooth her affectionately with
their antennas, and offer her refreshment.
No longer is she a neglected princess ; she is
queen of the hive, and will be cared for and
protected by the workers for the rest of her
life.
But the new queen refuses at first to settle
down quietly to her work in the hive. There
are perhaps two or three princesses still walled
up in their cells, and her majesty cannot rest
until she has destroyed them. So she rushes
to the royal cells (and now the bees stand
back and allow her to have her way) tears
them open, one after another, and with a
quick stab of her long curved sting puts
every princess to death !
After this one fierce act, the queen calms
down, and, without any more fuss, takes up
her duties in the hive. Day after day she
QUEEN OF THE HIVE
41
goes her rounds, laying eggs in the brood cells,
from which will spring thousands upon thou-
sands of new citizens to carry on the work and
govern the city of the bees.
And so the work in the hive goes steadily
on; and as the summer advances the bees
work faster and faster to gather in sufficient
food to last them through the long, cold
winter months, when there will be no flowers
from which they may glean the precious
nectar and pollen.
In the winter the bees cease their work,
and the queen lays no more eggs ; there
are no babies to attend to, no combs to build,
no honey to store. So the workers cluster
together for warmth in the centre of the hive
with their queen-mother in their midst.
Their store rooms may be full, but the bees
do not know how long the winter may last ;
so the wise little creatures are careful not to
eat more than is absolutely necessary to keep
them alive. At stated times a small allowance
of honey is served out to each bee, and no one
thinks of asking for more. The bees at the
top of the cluster open the honey cells and
pass their rations down to the rest, and as
the lower store cells become exhausted, all
42
BEES, WASPS AND ANTS
the bees move on together a little higher up
the combs.
All through the cold, dull days the bees
never leave the hive, but whenever, as some-
times even happens in the winter-time, the
sun shines brightly for a few hours, you may
see the little people flocking out at the gates
to stretch their wings in a short flight round
and round the hive.
Winter is a very trying time for the bee
people. When the spring returns many have
died, and all are weak and feeble. Neverthe-
less the first warm day brings out the willing
workers. The water carriers creep forth to
glean the dew-drops that sparkle on the grass
blades, and the bees begin a thorough spring
cleaning in the hive. All the dead bees are
carried out, all rubbish is cleared away, combs
are mended, new brood cells prepared for
the queen. Whenever the sun shines the
foragers come forth to search the golden
crocus and the sunny, sweet arabis. Winter
is past, summer is coming, and the bee city is
awake again.
BUMBLE BEES
43
CHAPTER VI
BUMBLE BEES
If we watch a border of bright flowers in our
garden, on a sunny summer morning, we shall
see that many different kinds of bees come
to visit it. The trim little hive bee with her
quick, business-hke ways flies briskly from
flower to flower ; the great velvety, bumble
bee comes sailing majestically along with a
loud, booming hum, dives into the Canterbury
bells and sets them all a-ringing ; fussy httle
round-bodied bees, covered with fluffy reddish
down, buzz about here and there ; and basking
on the daisy heads or in the heart of a rose, we
may perhaps find the little Sleeper bee with
her thin black and yellow body and funny
square-shaped head. All the bee folk are
revelling in the warmth and brightness, and
have come to gather treasure from the flowers.
And, indeed, they are right welcome to the
best our gardens can afford them, for while
they are working away so busily for them-
selves, the bees are all unknowingly working
for us too. Without our winged visitors our
44
BEES, WASPS AND ANTS
gardens could not flourish, we should have
but few flowers and hardly any fruit. As
they dive into the flowers to reach the golden
nectar, the hairy bodies of our bee friends
are dusted with precious pollen, from the
anthers of the flowers ; then some of it is
rubbed off on to the stigma of the next flower
they visit, and the useful work is done. For,
as I dare say you know, pollen must be trans-
ferred from one blossom to another or the
seed will not set. Some is carried to the
plants by the wind ; but insects, particularly
bees, are the chief pollen bearers.
It has been calculated that a busy bee will
often visit three or four hundred blossoms
in a day ; so however many flowers there may
be in our gardens, or in the country-side, there
are never too many for the friendly httle
bees to visit. If you watch carefully you
will notice that as a rule a bee goes in and
out of the same kind of flower ; she will work
steadily over the blossoms on the apple trees
on one of her journeys, and will not fly off to
the clover field or the violet bed until she
has been home to empty her honey bag, or her
pollen baskets. So the pollen is not wasted
by being carried to the wrong kind of flower.
BUMBLE BEES
45
Some have their black velvet coats adorned
with bands of pale yellow, others have golden,
orange, or white bands, and some, instead of
coloured strips, have the hind part of their
bodies clothed with red or golden brown
The bumble bees, or humble bees, are the
handsomest members of the bee family.
There are a great many bumble bees, and
they differ very much in size and colour.
GROUP OF BUMBLE BEES.
46
BEES, WASPS AND ANTS
hairs. The bumbles are “ social bees ” — that
is to say, hke their little cousins the hive bees,
they live in large companies and work together
in a friendly, sociable way. Although they
are not quite so clever as the hive bees, the
bumble bees are very intelligent and in-
dustrious ; they are peaceful folk, too, and
never use their stings unless they are pro-
voked.
The nest of a bumble bee is not so well
planned, or so orderly, as a city of hive bees.
The cells in which the eggs are laid and the
baby bees reared are placed just anyhow in
a higgledy-piggledy fashion, mixed up with
honey pots and pollen tubs, which are often
all shapes and sizes as if each worker had built
just as she had a mind to ; and in and out
amongst all this jumble run little straggling
paths for the bees to pass to and fro. What
makes the nest look particularly untidy is the
heap of empty and often broken cells to be
seen. For the bees do not use their nursery
cells more than once, but build fresh cells on
the top of the old ones for the next batch of
babies ; though they may fill a few empty cells
with honey, and break up others and use the
wax to build new ones.
BUMBLE BEES
47
The honey pots are always left open for
all to help themselves. No honey is stored
for the winter, for the little colony of bumble
bees lasts only through one season. As soon
as the cold weather sets in all the bees die off
with the exception of a few young queens,
who creep into some warm corner, under a
heap of moss, or leaves and rubbish, and when
winter is passed come out to found new
nests.
When a queen bumble bee wakes up in the
spring-time she finds herself alone in the world,
without a single worker to help her. But the
brave queen is not daunted ; as soon as she
has taken a little food and recovered her
strength she sets to work, all by herself, to
start a new nest. She collects little bundles of
moss and drags them to the chosen spot, which
may be simply on the ground under a heap of
moss or leaves, or a nice dry hole in a bank.
Working with her strong jaws and her sturdy
legs the bee bites and tears and kicks the
moss into place, and soon she has fashioned
a soft, warm little coverlet. Under this Mrs
Bee builds a little waxen cell, then out she
goes to gather nectar and pollen, which she
kneads into a soft, sweet cake with her jaws.
48
BEES, WASPS AND ANTS
The honey cake is placed in the cell, then
Mrs Bee lays several eggs on the top of it
and plasters up the cell with wax.
The queen now takes a short rest and then
proceeds to build a few more cells, and in
each one she puts a honey cake and a tiny
cluster of eggs. By the time three or four
cells are finished the eggs in the first one hatch,
and the baby bees set to work to demolish
the food placed all ready for them by their
thoughtful mother. Now Mrs Bee has to
work harder than ever, for not only are there
cells to build, eggs to lay, and honey cakes
to make, but there are several hungry children
to feed as well. She toils bravely on, however,
and the little larvae grow apace, for mother
bee supplies them with plenty to eat — pouring
in a sort of honey porridge from her mouth
through a tiny hole in the side of the cell.
The larvae soon grow so fat they become too big
for their nursery. They press against the walls,
stretching them out in all directions ; then
just as it seems that the thin wax must break
the larvae stop eating and turn to pupae. In
about four weeks from the time the first eggs
were laid the first little batch are ready to
leave their cells, and mother bee hurries eagerly
WOOD WASPS : THE GIANT SIREX AND THE SMALL SIREX
wasps’ nest with part of the paper covering
REMOVED
BUMBLE BEES
49
to break down the nursery walls and welcomes
her eldest daughters.
The bees that come from the first cells are
always workers, and without loss of time they
all set to work to help the queen mother ;
and as soon as there are sufficient workers in
the nest to build the cells, fetch in provisions,
and feed the babies, the queen leaves all this
work to them and has a much easier time.
She goes no more abroad, but stays at home,
and contents herself with laying eggs.
Bumble bees’ nests are never very large ;
there may be perhaps three or four hundred
bees living in a prosperous colony, but some
nests contain only fifty or sixty workers.
They are most industrious little people — they
are up with the lark and work away until
quite late in the day. Indeed, in hot countries
bumble bees sometimes do not go to bed at
all, for they have been seen busily working by
moonlight ; while some nests are said to have
a trumpeter bee, who makes a shrill piping
sound to call the bees to work as early as three
o’clock in the morning.
In the spring and early summer only
workers are hatched, but later on drones
appear, and then a few princesses. The prin-
D
50
BEES, WASPS AND ANTS
cesses do not fight and kill each other as the
princesses in a hive do, and the workers do
not kill the drones, but all five peacefully
together until the summer wanes. Then the
drones and princesses leave the hive, and as
the days begin to grow cold and chill the bees
cease to work ; and before winter with its
frosts and snows sets in all the bumble bees
are dead, except a few young princesses who
crawl into some warm corner and sleep until
spring comes again.
Living in the nests of bumble bees we may
sometimes find several bees who are not the
rightful inhabitants. They are just like the
true bumbles in appearance, although they
are usually somewhat larger. These strange
bees are queens who do not trouble to make
nests for themselves, but calmly take up their
residence in bumble bees’ houses. They do
no work beyond constructing a few large
cells in which they place their eggs, and they
leave their babies to be brought up by the
bumble bees with the rightful children of the
nest. The bumble bees make no objection to
this arrangement, and the lazy strangers spend
their days buzzing about the flowers, sipping
nectar, or, if the weather be dull, they stay
SOLITARY BEES
51
at home and eat the honey and pollen
gathered by the industrious workers in the
nest.
CHAPTER VII
SOLITARY BEES
All bees do not live in colonies and work
together in friendly fashion like the honey
bees and the bumble bees. By far the greater
number live quite alone, and so are called
“ solitary bees.” These lonely bees are quite
as interesting in their ways as their “ social ”
cousins, and many of them make the most
wonderful and beautiful little nests.
The Leaf-cutting bee you may often see
busy amongst the rose bushes. She is a
sturdy-looking little insect, about as big as a
honey bee, and is covered with soft, brown
hair. If you watch her at work you will see
that instead of gathering nectar and pollen
she is busily engaged in cutting out a piece
from a rose-leaf. The little bee stands on the
leaf, turning round in a circle as she works,
her sharp jaws goes snip, snip, snip, like a
52
BEES, WASPS AND ANTS
tiny pair of scissors, until the piece is almost
severed, and one would think with the next
bite bee and rose leaf must fall to the
ground ; but just at the last moment the little
bee spreads her gauzy wings and off she goes
with her prize.
She flies to a spot she has already fixed
upon ; it may be a little tunnel in the ground
made by a worm, or a burrow in an old wooden
gate post, or decaying tree-trunk, hollowed out
by some other insect, and she disappears
inside. Presently she pops out again without
the leaf, and is off again to the rose bush.
She flies backwards and forwards several
times, and on each homeward journey she
carries a tiny, long- shaped piece of leaf clasped
firmly with her front legs and tiny jaws.
Some leaf-cutting bees cut as many as thirty
of these long- shaped pieces, but others content
themselves with ten or twelve. All the little
pieces are exactly the same size and shape,
and the bee fits them neatly together, one
piece overlapping the next in order, and fastens
them carefully with a kind of glue from her
mouth — and soon she has made a rose-leaf
cell shaped like a little thimble. When this is
finished the bee pours a mixture of honey and
SOLITARY BEES
53
pollen into the rose-leaf thimble, and on the
top of this she lays an egg ; then off she goes
to the rose bush again and cuts off three or
four new pieces, round this time, and deftly
THE KOSE-LEAF CELLS MADE BY THE LEAF-CCTTING BEE.
fits them into the top of the cell to form a
lid.
The bee makes five, six, or seven of these
rose-leaf thimbles, and fits them all closely
together, one on the top of another, in the
narrow tunnel. In each one she places an
egg and a honey cake, and then the clever
little bee carefully closes the entrance and
flies away to look for another burrow. The
54
BEES, WASPS AND ANTS
bee fills from four to six burrows with these
little thimbles, and by that time she is quite
worn out with her labours, so she spends the
remaining summer days resting amongst the
flowers and refreshing herself with little sips
of nectar.
In due time baby bees hatch from the eggs
in the rose-leaf cells, and the little things set
to work without delay to eat up the nice
sweet food their kind mother had placed all
ready for them. When this is finished each
larva spins a silken cocoon and falls asleep
until the following summer. When they
awake they are no longer fat little grubs but
perfect leaf-cutting bees, and they bite their
way through the rose leaves and come out in
the sunshine. The little male leaf-cutters
do no work, but spend their days in enjoying
themselves ; but each httle lady bee, after
she has taken a short hohday, sets to work
to make rose-leaf thimbles for her children,
just as her mother did before her.
Another little bee called the “ Poppy bee ”
makes even prettier nurseries for her little
ones. She is a small bee with a velvety
black coat ornamented with narrow rings
of fluffy white down. The Poppy bee first
SOLITARY BEES
55
scoops out little hollows in the ground, choos-
ing dry, sandy soil for her operations. She
pounds the sides of the burrow to make them
firm and lasting, and then lines them with
pieces of the petals which she cuts from the
flowers with her strong, toothed jaws. Mrs
Bee is very particular about this soft, pretty
lining to her nest, and presses and smoothes
out every fold and crease with her head and
legs before she puts the honey cake and a
precious egg within ; then before she closes
the mouth of the burrow she carefully folds
over the ends of the poppy petals, so that no
grains of sand can fall in the nursery and spoil
the bee baby’s food. When this is done the
bee fills up the hole with soil and rakes over
the top with her feet to hide the entrance to
her nest.
There are other little bees, called “ Miner
bees,” no bigger than flies, that tunnel in sandy
soil or in gravel paths ; others hollow out
the stems of the blackberry, and form their
little cells inside by making partitions with
the pith they have scraped out. Another family
of tiny bees cleans out old straws and divides
the inside into cells with the help of a little
mortar ; while a bee called the “ Carder bee ”
56
BEES, WASPS AND ANTS
will sometimes even choose a snail shell in
which to make its nest.
The Carder bee lines its nest with a layer
of soft cotton, which it strips from the stems
of plants growing near by. She runs up and
down the stems and shaves them bare until
she has collected a ball of cotton almost as
big as herself, then she tucks it underneath
her, holding it tightly with her legs, and flies
off with it. If an empty snail shell is not
handy the bee will use the deserted nest of
another bee, or any suitable hole she may find ;
but she always lines her nest with cotton,
spreading it out with her fore-legs and pressing
it down with her head until it is nice and
smooth. Then she finishes it off with a coating
of glue, to prevent the honey mixture she puts
inside the cell for the larvse sinking into the
cotton. When the nest is finished the bee
blocks up the entrance with tiny scraps of
wood, little stones, or any odds and ends
that may be lying near by.
The Carder bee, the Leaf-cutter, and many
of the little miners, we may find at work in
the summer time in almost all ^parts of our
own country — in the garden, in the sand pits,
and in the fields and lanes ; but the Carpenter
SOLITARY BEES
57
bee and the Mason bee live in sunnier southern
lands. The “ carpenter ” is a native of the
south of France. He is a splendid fellow, with
a black velvet coat and deep violet-coloured
wings, and is larger than the biggest bumble
bee. But Mr Carpenter is no workman ; he,
as is the usual way in the insect world, spends
his life in pleasure,
while his good wife
does all the work.
Mrs Carpenter is
just as fine look-
ing as her lazy
mate ; and she
has a pair of very
powerful toothed
jaws. With these
THE CARPENTER BEE.
tools she cuts and
saws into the trunk of a dead tree, or an
old dry stump of wood, making long galleries
that are often a foot deep. These she fits
with partition walls, made from the sawdust
she has taken from the tunnel, mixed with
the gluey saliva from her mouth. The bee
makes three or four galleries side by side.
These all open into the same passage or lobby
with one exit to the outer world ; so when
58
BEES, WASPS AND ANTS
the young carpenter bees are ready to leave
their little nurseries they all pass out of the
same hall door.
This piece of carpentry takes Mrs Bee
several weeks to accomplish ; should she,
however, find a tree that is already bored with
suitable tunnels she is wise enough to take
possession of them, and so save herself a great
deal of labour. In this case, all mother bee
has to do, to make the cells in which she places
her eggs, is to fit a number of sawdust parti-
tions into the ready made galleries.
The Mason bee also lives in the south of
France ; it is a hairy little creature, smaller
than a bumble bee but rather larger than a
honey bee. Mother mason bee makes her
nest with mortar, which she mixes for herself,
using dry, powdery soil and her own natural
glue. For the foundation of her nest she
usually chooses a stone, though some mason
bees build on the branch of a tree or under
the eaves of country cottages. Having mixed
a little mortar the bee plasters it firmly on
the stone in the shape of a ring. She adds
pellet after pellet of mortar, tiny stones, and
bits of gravel, working round and round, and
adding layer after layer, until she has built a
WASPS AND THEIR WAYS 59
little turret about an inch high of a sort of
rough- cast cement. Mother bee then stores
this httle castle with honey and pollen, lays
an egg on the top and plasters up the opening.
Six or ten cells are built side by side by this
clever little mason, yet the only tools she uses
are her jaws and her fore-legs ! When all the
tiny turrets are finished, and stored, the bee
spreads a thick layer of mortar over the whole
lot, all her neat work is hidden, and when the
little mason flies away her nest looks only
like a clod of dry earth sticking on the side of
the stone.
There are no workers amongst the solitary
bees — only males and females. And it is
always the little mother bee who takes so
much trouble to build nurseries, and provide
food for the baby bees.
CHAPTER VHI
WASPS AND THEIR WAYS
It was a clear, bright May morning when the
queen wasp crawled from beneath the heap
60
BEES, WASPS AND ANTS
of leaves under the oak tree where she had
spent the winter sleeping.
She felt dazed and weak, and no wonder,
for she had tasted no food since the end of
last October. She rubbed her face and her
eyes with her fore-feet, like a cat washing its
face, smoothed her legs and her long, thin,
black and yellow body, fluttered her wings,
then feeling a little bit refreshed she started
off to find some breakfast.
But the sun hid behind a cloud and a cold
wind sprang up ; so the wasp with a little
shiver crept into a crack in an old ivy- covered
wall, and decided to take another nap until
the weather changed again.
The spring days sOon grow warmer and her
majesty is once more able to be out and about.
She spends a few days flying here and there,
feasting on the nectar of the flowers until she
grows quite strong and vigorous. Then she
starts house-hunting, for she begins to feel
anxious to set up house-keeping in a home of
her own.
The wasp runs about eagerly over a
sunny bank covered with tufts of grass, strag-
gling brambles, and trails of green ivy. She
searches the ground very thoroughly, peer-
WASPS AND THEIR WAYS 61
ing under every clump of leaves, poking her
funny-looking head into every hole and corner,
and feeling everything she comes across with
her stout, rod-like antennae. Mrs Wasp is by
no means easy to please, and she examines
every inch of the ground for several yards
round before she finds a place that appears
to satisfy her requirements. At last she
comes upon a nice roomy hole in the bank
(once the home of a family of field-mice),
and decides that, with a little alteration, this
will do very nicely. The entrance to the hole
is well protected by a moss-covered stone
which juts out from the bank, and a narrow,
winding passage leads down to the cosy hol-
low where, last season, father and mother
mouse brought up a family of seven little mice,
and kept their store of seeds and beechnuts.
Having made up her mind to take possession
of the hole, Mrs Wasp crawls in and walks
all over her new home, and then proceeds to
“ tidy up ” the place. She scrapes at the
wall, here and there, with her fore-feet, carries
several little pellets of earth outside the nest
and throws them away, and bites off a blade
or two of grass growing round the entrance
which seem to vex her tidy mind.
62
BEES, WASPS AND ANTS
For the next few weeks the queen wasp is
very busy indeed. All alone she lays the
foundations from which, in time, will grow a
fine wasp city. First she flies off to the
nearest rotten tree stump, or an old wooden
fence that has become dry and splintered.
She bites and tears off tiny fragments of
wood and chews up the fibres, mixing them
with a gluey liquid
in her mouth,
until they are re-
duced to a soft,
grepsh pulp. For
wasps do not
build their nests
of wax, as bees
do ; the walls and
cells are all made
PART OF THE PAPER COVERING WITH
WHICH WASPS SURROUND THEIR of paper wluch the
clever little insects
manufacture for themselves. The wasp carries
pellet after pellet of soft paper into the hole
in the bank, and works them into a short,
stout pillar fastened to a projecting root at
the top of the nest (for a wasp’s house is
always built upside down, the first floor, as
it were, being next to the ceiling). From
WASPS AND THEIR WAYS 63
this little pillar she suspends a small roof,
like an open umbrella. Under this shelter
she makes two or three cells, and then the
first eggs are laid.
In about eight days’ time the eggs hatch,
and the queen, who in the meantime has been
busy building more cells and placing eggs in
them, has now, to add to her labours, several
hungry little grubs to feed. Still she toils
on, fetching food for her babies, enlarging
their cells as they grow, making new cells
and laying eggs ; it is really a wonder the
poor queen is not quite worn out !
Every day now, as fresh eggs hatch, there
are more and more mouths to feed, yet the
queen wasp manages it all. But help is now
at hand, for after she has toiled alone in the
nest for a whole long month, her labours are
rewarded, and the first few worker wasps
come out of their cells ready to help their
devoted mother.
After this joyful event, fresh workers are
added to the little colony every day. The
wasp city grows rapidly, and soon the queen
spends all her time laying eggs while her
daughters do all the rest of the work.
The workers now make the paper, build
64
BEES, WASPS AND ANTS
the cells, go out to fetch provisions, and
look after the babies. There is no end to
the work in the wasp city; no sooner is one
floor completed than the workers start to
make a new one beneath it, joining it on to
the one above with two or three short little
paper pillars. The cells all open downwards,
but the babies
never fall out, and
the nurses are able
to walk on the roof
of one storey while
they feed the larvae
in the floor above,
as they hang from
the ceiling in their
paper cradles. As
each new floor is
added the outside
Hi
PAPER COMB IN A WASP’s NEST.
IN THE CAPPED CELLS THE BABY
WASPS ARE CHANGING INTO PER-
FECT INSECTS.
wall is enlarged ;
and the little paper umbrella, which the queen
hung from the roof of the hole in the bank,
grows into a thick, warm cover surrounding
the whole of the nest. Sometimes the hole
itself becomes too small for the ever-increasing
swarm of wasps ; then the little creatures set
to work to make it bigger, by digging out
THE ENTRANCE TO
BEES GATHERING POLLEN
WASPS AND THEIR WAYS 65
the earth all round and carrying the pellets
of soil out of the nest.
When summer is at its height, the nest,
that started with just one queen wasp, may
contain as many as three or four thou-
sand busy workers ; and all day long during
the hours of sunshine a constant stream of
“ yellow jackets ” may be seen pouring in
and out of the entrance in the bank — some
starting out in quest of food, or wood for
paper - making, others returning with their
loads.
Wasps are not content with a diet of nectar
and pollen, like the peaceful bees, although
they are very fond of sweet things, as every-
one who has seen them feasting on the jam,
and dipping into the marmalade on the break-
fast table must know; and they often do
great harm in orchards by biting into the
pears and plums. But baby wasps need fresh
meat as well as fruit and honey, to make
them grow up into strong, healthy insects. So
troops of wasps will often invade butchers’
shops and cut off little pieces of meat to carry
home to the hungry children in the nest ;
while many a “yellow jacket” pops in to
dinner with us uninvited, and helps herself
E
66
BEES, WASPS AND ANTS
to a slice from the joint. Next time a wasp
joins your dinner party, just watch the clever
way she cuts off a tiny scrap of meat with
her strong jaws.
But a butcher’s shop, or a house where
meat is to be had, does not often happen to
be just next door to a wasp’s nest ; and as
a rule wasps catch and kill flies, and make
them into a kind of fly paste for the hungry
larvae. The wasp is a regular huntress. She
flies swiftly backwards and forwards over a
field or garden, then down she pounces, just
like a hawk, on a big, lazy fly who is buzzing
about the flowers. Sometimes, quick as she
is, the fly is quicker and darts off just in the
nick of time. But the wasp is after it in
a moment, and an exciting chase begins.
Sometimes the fly escapes, but more often the
little huntress captures her prey. Then down
on the ground the wasp and the fly tumble
together; the fly struggles, but the wasp
stabs it with her poisoned dagger, and the fight
is ended. Then, after cutting off the wings,
the feet and the head of the fly, the wasp
carries off her prize to the nest.
Towards the end of summer the wasps
build larger cells, and in these the drones and
SOCIAL AND SOLITARY WASPS 67
queen wasps are reared. The queens and
drones soon leave the nest, and as the days
grow colder, the workers grow tired and
feeble, and stay at home in the nest more and
more. There are still many larvae left in
the cells, but the wasps have not strength to
hunt for food for them any longer, so, instead
of leaving them to die of starvation, the
wasps drag the little things from their cradles
and kill them.
There is now no work left for the wasps to
do. Soon they all die from cold and star-
vation. Of all the busy throng not one is
left. Only the young queens who had already
left the nest live to the following spring,
tucked away in some snug corner where the
cold frosts cannot harm them, to become the
founders of new wasp cities.
CHAPTER IX
SOCIAL AND SOLITARY WASPS
No one is particularly fond of wasps. To
be sure, their sting is very painful, and they
often spoil a good deal of fruit. But wasps
68
BEES, WASPS AND ANTS
are not nearly as bad as they are painted;
they are really not at all bad-tempered, and
never sting unless they are interfered with.
Of course, it is not wise to touch a wasp, as
naturally it will be frightened and sting in
self-defence ; but you need not be afraid
even if a wasp settles on your hand, for as
long as you keep still it will not harm you.
Even the hornets, although they look so
terrifying, are peaceful enough when not
annoyed ; and if people would only let them
alone instead of flapping at them, they would
have no desire to sting. Hornets are a large
kind of wasp. They build their nests in
hollow tree trunks, or sometimes under the
roofs of houses.
A small wasp, called the “ Bush wasp,”
sometimes builds under eaves, too, or in
corners of walls, but more often its pretty
little round nest is found hanging on the
branch of a tree, or in the midst of a thick
bush. On no account should you touch one
of these wasps’ nests, for that is one thing the
wasps will not allow, and an army of fierce
little warriors will sally forth and attack
anyone who dares to interfere with their
home.
SOCIAL AND SOLITARY WASPS 69
The “ Wood wasp,” a large insect banded
with black and yellow in the usual wasp -like
fashion, is often mistaken for a hornet, and
sometimes causes quite a panic by suddenly
appearing and buzzing about in shops or
houses. Its long body ends in a long, straight
tail, which sticks stiffly out like a needle, and
many people imagine that this is a “ sting ”
which the great wasp-like creature is anxious
to plunge into them. But, as a matter of
70
BEES, WASPS AND ANTS
fact, the “ Wood wasp ” is quite harmless,
although it certainly does look rather alarming.
The terrible looking “ sting ” is not a poisonous
weapon, but a handy tool with which “ Mrs
Wood Wasp ” bores little holes in the
wood of fir trees, and in these she places her
eggs.
The “ Wood wasp ” is not really a wasp
at all, although it belongs to the same order
of insects as the wasps and bees. It is a
great four-winged fly whose proper name is
the “ Giant Sirex.”
There are not many of these insects in our
country, but on the Continent they fly about
the fir plantations in great numbers, and do
a great deal of harm by piercing the trees
that have been felled by the woodmen.
Mother Sirex lays about a hundred eggs, and
the holes in which she places them are so
small that they are not noticed. But as the
sirex grubs grow they enlarge the holes, and
after the tree has been sawn up, and the wood
is used in building houses or making furniture,
they are often still living contentedly within
it. Then one fine day (when the insects have
completed their transformations) folks may
be startled by seeing a number of great Sirex
SOCIAL AND SOLITARY WASPS 71
flies popping out of the window frames or
the legs of the dining-room table.
There are solitary wasps just as there are
solitary bees, and they are quite as interesting
in their habits. There are no workers, and
each little mother wasp toils alone to make a
cosy dwelling-place where her children may
dwell in safety, until they become perfect
insects, and are able to take care of them-
selves.
There are so many of these clever insects,
and they are all so interesting, that I hardly
know which to choose to tell you about. The
greater number live in warmer countries ; but
we may find several different species of solitary
wasps in our fields and lanes, burrowing in
the ground or in banks and sandy cliffs,
tunnelling into stems of plants and decaying
wood, or busily scraping holes in the crumbling
mortar in old walls.
An old sand pit is a splendid place to look
for these little creatures. If we visit one in
August, or early in September, we shall very
likely find the steep sides of the pit dotted all
over with tiny round holes that look as if they
might have been made with a pencil ; and
if the day be warm and sunny, the sand cliffs
72
BEES, WASPS AND ANTS
will be alive with a busy company of little
black and yellow “ sand wasps.” Some are
furiously scraping and digging in the sand
with their fore-feet, sending it out behind
them in little waves with a kick of their hind
legs ; others who have proceeded farther with
their excavations appear from time to time
at the entrance to their tunnels, moving back-
wards, to sweep out the loose sand. Some
little sand wasps are taking a short rest, and
their quaint square-shaped heads can be seen
peering out of their burrows. Some are fly-
ing away from the colony, others returning
and popping down into their holes, and all
A LITTLE SAND WASP.
SOCIAL AND SOLITARY WASPS 7S
the time a shrill, excited hum goes on from
the throng of cheerful workers.
You may perhaps think that these little
insects cannot be “ solitary ” wasps, as here we
find ever so many working away in company ;
but although they are working side by side.
A SMALL BUSH WASP’S NEST.
each wasp is working entirely on her own
account. She has no objections to neighbours,
but takes no interest in their affairs.
As soon as a wasp has finished her tunnel
and made a kind of little pocket at the end,
she starts off on a hunting expedition. If
you saw her flitting here and there over the
gorse and bracken on the edge of the sand
74
BEES, WASPS AND ANTS
pit, you might think Mrs Wasp was enjoying
a little holiday, and was just playing about.
But no, she is on the watch all the time, and
suddenly down she pounces on a big fly who
was taking a nap in the noonday sun. She
drops with her victim to the ground, stings
INSIDE OF SMALL BUSH WASP’S NEST, SHOWING LARViE IN
THE CELLS.
it quickly with her poisoned dart, then, gather-
ing it up underneath her body, she clasps
her burden tightly with her legs and flies
away back to her den.
Now the strange thing is that the wasp has
not killed that fly. She has just stung it
sufficiently to stupefy it. She stores it away
in the little pocket at the end of her burrow.
SOCIAL AND SOLITARY WASPS 75
and when she has caught several more flies,
and treated them all in the same way, she will
lay an egg beside them and shut the door of
the cell. The poor flies lie numbed and
motionless, and when the little grub comes out
of the egg it will set to work to eat them all
up. In this way the wise little wasp provides
fresh food for her children. If the flies were
killed outright they would be all dried up
and unfit for food before the eggs hatched.
Two or three little pockets are made and
stored in the same way, before the wasp
closes up the tunnel ; then, her work done,
she flies off and spends the last few summer
days in resting and amusing herself.
Some solitary wasps store caterpillars in-
stead of flies, some hunt spiders, some beetles,
some grasshoppers, others ants. Each
different kind of solitary wasp has its own
particular idea as to what is the best food
for its children.
It seems wonderful indeed that these little
insects should take so much trouble for the
children they will never see ; and stranger
still, that these wasps who themselves live en-
tirely on the juices of flowers and fruit, should
know that their babies will need insect food.
76
BEES, WASPS AND ANTS
CHAPTER X
THE “ LITTLE PEOPLE ”
Let us go out into the pine woods. The air
is sweet with the scent of the pines, and the
sun is sending long slanting shafts of golden
light down through the dark, leafy roof,
between the pine stems which stand up
straight and tall like the masts of great ships.
The ground is covered with so thick a carpet
of pine needles that our footsteps are scarcely
heard ; all is still and silent ; the wood seems
deserted.
But if you think you are alone in the wood
you are very much mistaken. Here we are
in the midst of hundreds of thousands of tiny
folk, surrounded by miniature towns, and cities,
and roadways, all belonging to, and made by,
a race of clever, industrious little people whom
we call the “ Wood ants.”
Dotted about amongst the pine trunks are
many little hillocks of pine needles. They are
of all sizes, from small round masses just
raised above the ground to fine big castles
two or three feet high. Every hill has been
THE “ LITTLE PEOPLE ”
77
built, or is being built, by those strange little
folk ; and in each of the larger hills there are
as many ants living together as there are
people in a large town such as London or
Liverpool.
An ant hill does not look so very wonderful
at first sight perhaps. It seems but a medley
of pine needles and tiny bits of things all piled
up together as if someone had poured them
all out of a sack on to the ground. But when
we think that every one of those milhons of
needles and twigs has been carried here by
the little ants, the feat seems truly astonishing ;
and if, by some magic, we could make ourselves
as small as the tiny inhabitants of the ant
hill, we should discover that the jumble of
odds and ends is really a wonderfully built
city.
Here are many doors and gateways, leading
to long, winding pathways where we might
easily lose our way. There are halls, and
rooms and galleries on every side ; and in
and out and up and down move thousands
upon thousands of the ant people — just as
busy throngs of human folk pass to and fro
in a crowded town.
We should have to beware though, however
78
BEES, WASPS AND ANTS
small we made ourselves, how we attempted
to enter the kingdom of the ants, unless our
“ magic ” was sufficient to deceive the little
people, and make them believe we belonged
to their tribe — for ants never allow strangers
to enter their gates. An ant from one hill
dare not enter another, even though the two
hills may be side by side. All the ants in
one nest know each other, and if by some
accident some are carried away, and then
after a time find their way home again, they
will be at once recognised by their comrades,
even though two or three months have passed ;
but if stranger ants appear, the rightful in-
habitants of the city fall upon them furiously,
and either kill them or drive them away.
But let us watch the little people for a
while, to try and find out what they are all
doing. At first all seems confusion. All over
the ground and up the tree trunks ants are
running about in all directions, in what seems
to us an aimless sort of way. But it is not so
really, and it soon becomes plain that, although
here and there a little party are evidently
making holiday — skipping and frisking about
in playful glee — ^the majority are intent on
some important business. Quantities of ants
THE “ LITTLE PEOPLE ’’ 79
are hurrying to and fro, following regular
paths stretching from the nest to different
parts of the wood. Those on the homeward
journey are carrying pine needles, tiny pieces
of twigs, scraps of leaves, or grains of earth
in their jaws, to add to the nest, or mend some
part that has been broken down. Here comes
a party of hunters dragging home a big, fat
caterpillar they have killed, followed by a
kind-hearted ant carrying a wounded comrade
carefully in her jaws. Gangs of little people
are engaged in clearing the roadways or
making new paths, by carefully removing
pieces of sticks, leaves, or other little obstacles,
that might hinder the workers as they passed
along with their burdens. As we watch we
shall see that two or three ants will often stop
and have a little chat by the way. They
touch each other gently with their antennae,
and by the way these little feelers move and
quiver it is plain to see the ants are really
talking, although, unfortunately, we cannot
understand their language.
Parties of ants are hurrying from the nest,
some to hunt for food, some to fetch building
material, and others to milk the cows. The
milkmaids march steadily along a path lead-
80
BEES, WASPS AND ANTS
ing to the edge of the wood, and climb up on
to a bush where their cows are feeding.
The ant cows are those destructive little
aphides, or green flies as they are often called,
that crowd on the leaves and stems of plants,
sucking away at the juices, and the “ little
people ” milk them by gently tickling their
sides with their antennae. This seems to
please the “ cows,” and little drops of sugary
syrup ooze from two tiny tubes which the
aphides have at the end of their bodies. This
syrup is called “ honey- dew, ”and the milk-
maids lap it up till their pouches are full, then
carry it back to the nest to feed the other
ants and the babies at home. The ants are
so fond of honey-dew that they take the
greatest care of their cows ; they protect
them from the attack of other insects, shelter
them in their nests, and even build cowsheds
of earth over the aphides which feed on
the roots of plants. The little yellow field
ant keeps large herds of ant-cows, and is, in
fact, a regular little cattle farmer. In the
autumn, when the aphides lay their eggs, the
little yellow ants go forth and collect them,
and carry them into the nest. They keep the
eggs carefully through the winter, and when
THE “ LITTLE PEOPLE ”
81
in the spring-time the young aphides come out,
the ants carry their little cows outside and
place them on the daisy leaves growing round
about ; and all through the spring and
summer the little yellow ants go forth daily
to milk and tend their herd.
In every ants’ nest there are three kinds
of ants — queens, males, and worker-ants.
The queens are larger than the workers, and
two or three often live quite contentedly in
the same nest, and do not fight as queen bees
do. The ants are very fond of their queens ;
they feed them, stroke them with their
antennae, keep them clean, and a band of
workers always follows them about wherever
they go. An ant queen does not leave the
nest ; she is much too busy laying eggs. As
fast as they are laid the workers pick up the
tiny, oval, whitish things and hurry off with
them to special rooms, where they are kept
together until they hatch. A certain number
of ants are always watching over the eggs ;
they lick them to keep them moist, and carry
them from one room to another, if they think
they are getting too hot, or too cold ; and as
soon as one hatches, a nurse carries the new
baby off to one of the nurseries.
F
8^
BEES, WASPS AND ANTS
The ant babies are helpless little grubs.
They can do nothing but wriggle their soft
white bodies and . open their tiny mouths
when they want some food ; but the kind
nurses take the greatest care of their little
charges. Every morning the babies are
carried up from the night nurseries low down
in the nest, to the day nurseries near the top
of the ant-hill. Here the nurses feed them and
clean them by licking them gently all over,
and if the day be warm and sunny the children
are carried out on to the top of the nest for
an airing. The nurses never leave the babies
alone for a moment, but are always feeding
them, carrying them about, or patting and
stroking them with their antennae ; should a
cloud gather in the sky, or any danger
approach the nest, the little people pick up
their precious babies and run indoors with
them as fast as they can.
When the little larvae are full grown they
spin for themselves tiny silken cocoons, and
in these little cases they rest until they have
changed to perfect insects. It is these cocoons
which are collected and sold as food for young
pheasants and gold-fish, and wrongly called
“ ants’ eggs.”
THE “ LITTLE PEOPLE ”
83
The little people take quite as much care
of the cocoons as they do of the eggs and
larvae. They keep them spotlessly clean, and
carry them from one room to another, never
letting them grow too hot or too cold ; then,
when at last the new ants are ready to leave
their cases, the nurses hasten to help them out.
They carefully snip open the silken cocoons
with their jaws, and then free the little
prisoners from their pupa skins. They smooth
them all over with their antennae and help
them to stand up on their legs, which are at
first doubled all up underneath them. For the
first few days the new ants are very feeble,
but the kind workers feed them, show them
their way about the city, and introduce them
to their comrades, and before very long the
new arrivals have grown quite strong and
are able to bear their share of the work of
the colony.
The worker ants are quaint-looking little
people, with funny flat heads and antennae
that have a joint like an elbow, so that they
bend in the middle. The two parts of an
ant’s body are joined by a fine thread, which
looks as if it had a knot in it. Some ants
have one and some have two knots, and the
84
BEES, WASPS AND ANTS
ants with two knots possess a sting, while
those with only one knot have none.
The worker ants have no wings, but the
male ants and the queens when they come
from the cocoons have four beautiful gauzy
wings. On a still, warm summer day, thou-
disperse them and they are wafted away. But,
sad to say, a sorrowful fate overtakes the little
winged ants when their joyful flight is over.
As they sink once more to the ground they
are gobbled up in thousands by the birds who
look upon a swarm of ants as a splendid feast.
No male ant ever returns to the nest, and only
A WORKER WOOD ANT.
\
sands upon thou-
sands of these
winged ants come
pouring out of the
nests and rise to-
gether into the air.
They dance and
sway in the sun-
shine, their wings
gleaming with rain-
bow hues, as they
drift here and there
like a little cloud ;
but soon the breezes
THE “ LITTLE PEOPLE ”
85
a very few queens escape the general slaughter.
These either return to the old nest or, with the
help of a few workers, start a new one. But
before a queen ant settles down in her house
she tears off her beautiful wings ; her careless,
merry days are over — she will never fly again.
There are many different kinds of ants,
just as there are many different races of
mankind in the world, and each tribe has its
own particular habits and customs. There
are Slave-making ants who make raids on other
tribes and carry off their grubs and cocoons.
They take good care of their little captives,
who, when they grow up, are made to work for
their owners. There are Robber ants — tiny
little creatures who make their homes in the
walls of the large wood ants’ nests. When
their big neighbours are off their guard the
robber ants rush out, seize some of their eggs
and larvae, and scuttle back to their dens ;
and although the angry wood ants chase them,
they cannot squeeze through into the tiny
galleries where the wicked little robbers are
eating up their children.
There are Harvesting ants who clear large
spaces round their nests and grow a crop of
“ ant-rice,” When the seed is ripe the ants
86
BEES, WASPS AND ANTS
gather in the harvest and cut down the
stubble, clearing the ground for the next
year’s crop. These little harvesters live in
the south of Europe, in India, and in Texas.
There are all sorts of interesting ants found
abroad, which are even more astonishing in
their ways than the English ants. In South
America the Um-
brella ants are a
terrible pest to the
human inhabitants,
as they ascend the
trees in thousands
and strip them of
their foliage, which
they use for making
a kind of thatch to
cover the mounds
of earth over their
underground dwell-
ings.
It is the strangest
sight to see thousands of these little people
marching along in procession, every one
holding aloft in its jaws a tiny piece of
leaf, about the size of a sixpence, like a little
umbrella.
A “major worker” of the
FORAGING ANTS.
THE “ LITTLE PEOPLE
87
The Foraging ants, too, Hve in South
America. They have two kinds of workers ;
some with very large heads and enormous
jaws, called “ major workers,” and others with
small heads and ordinary-sized jaws, called
“ minor workers,” These foraging ants go
out in regular hunting parties, killing and
devouring all sorts of small creatures that
fall in their way ; and, strange to say, while
some tribes of foragers can see quite well,
others are totally blind, and always move
along under covered ways which they make
just beneath the surface of the ground as they
march through the forests.
I wish I could tell you more of the ways of
these wonderful little ant people — of the great
cities they build, the battles they fight, and all
the clever things they do. But there is no
more time to talk about them now. They
belong to the same order of insects as the
industrious bees and wasps. Many insects are
more beautiful, but the bees, the wasps, and
the ants are far and away the cleverest and
most intelligent little people in the “ Insect
World.”
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