attacking the drones he may be very sure it means that the honey crop is exhausted.
Our pity is usually much more excited for the fate of the drone than for that of the busy worker, which dies from overwork at the end of a few weeks; and this is undoubtedly because the death of the worker seems voluntary, while the drones are manifestly murdered. Once we witnessed the slaughter of the drones in an observation hive, the entrance of which was too contracted to allow the bodies of the drones to pass. For several days the bloody-minded workers spent their energies in tearing their wretched victims limb from limb, and carrying them out in sections. Below a small crevice at the bottom of the hive we found a row of disjointed legs, wings and antennae from the mutilated drones, while the heads and broken bodies were thrown out of the front of the hive.
THE WORKERS. (Plate V, VI. VII.)
It is interesting to note that in the socialistic bee-community the work is carried on by unsexed females. It evidently has not been a part of the true economy of the perfect socialism to unite motherhood and business life in one individual; therefore, a division of labour takes place. The queen mother is developed into a highly efficient egg-laying machine, while all her worker sisters remain undeveloped sexually, and thus have time and energy to devote themselves to bringing up the young, keeping the house, getting the food, and administering the affairs
