The Honolulu republican. [volume] (Honolulu, T.H.) 1900-1902, 1901-11-17

Z VIII come out IN swaTns. buzzing an.
gritty. and generally issuing from the
holes tail first Occasionally one vii
look ont with his great. bead like eyes
7 and dart toward yoa. head foremost
4 After a wh.ie a brown bee viii come
tumbling OFT. buzZinE fJlriOusly. This
+ Is very handsome. Il resembles the
E black one in most respects. being coy
cred with tawny hairs instead Of black
ones The beak Is not quite so large
ard powerful, and the hind legs are
not 50 broad aud large. The eyes are
bright green and II possesses no sting
On account Of the fact that these
brown bees are less frequently seen,
and that there appears to be fewer OF
them. people have supposed them TO be
the queens The queen among insects
Is the Queen-mOther Of the hive. From
lis structure the brown bee could not
be a queen. or female. for the females
OF bees always possess a sting So it
follows that the black ones are the fe-
males and the yellow ones the males.
There is no queen among these in
scots. as they are solitary bees. one
family living IN each tunnel or hole.
They do not live in a communistic
state 81 society where there is no fam
ily life They are not as Intelligent
nor as highly developed as the honey
bees. whose hives consist OF workers
fmodiiied femaIesl. drones and the
queen mother There everything is
held in common and everything is
done for the common good.
The brown bee is the head Of the
carpenter bee family. He appears to
be a drone and a stay-at-home. al
though il is thought that be aids in
keeping the home tidy, in clearing ont
the sawdHst after the Matching out OF
a brood of young ones.
The black bee is the true worker.
She carves out a tunnel some eight or
nine inches in length and five-eighths
Of an inch in diameter The door is
IN about the middle. The tunnel may
he in any direction, according to the
grain Of the wood. horizontal in posts. (
vertical in fence rails and oblique in
often wood OF dead branches. where !
they bore out the wood and leave the I
hark for walls They have been found /.
n breadfruit trees, and It is said they /
'ttack the algarobas also.
At certain seasons the tunnel is /
1aruuoned OF into rooms or small 4
ellis. about three-fourths OF an inch 1
\ depth. The end of the tunnel is /
oncave When the tunnel is finished
he female gathers honey and pollen
rom the flowers. which she mixes to-
ether into a kind of paste. She de-
Osits a large lump of this yellowish
turf in the end of the tunnel and
-obably embeds her egg in its sub
lance. Then she collects the waste
awdust, with which she proceeds to
axe a wall or partition. arranging
ne chips in a close spiral, and pack
2 them down very hard, so that the
hole makes a solid cake. Concaye on
ne side and fat on the other The
IT side is the floor OF the first cell,
hile the concave side becomes the
7ilins of the second one. She walls
p all her offspring after the same
manner. in similar cells. one above ;
he other, making about six rooms in
he house
After a time the eggs develop into .
-hite worms. destitute of legs; these {
'rvae live upon the paste of pollen {
nd nectar in their dark cells They
eed greedily upon this, rapidly grow