SOCIAL INSECTS
Social
insects, like ants and bees, cannot live on their own.
The
fact that they are called social insects means they live in a
community or colony.
The
queen of wild bumble bees starts to build a new colony as soon
as she wakes up in the spring.
She lays her first eggs in an old
mouse nest, in a waxy bag.
When
the first eggs hatch they develop into workers to help her.
They
make rough honey-comb, mixing earth with their wax and in its
cells young bee larvae are fed on nectar and pollen.
If
the larva is going to be a queen it is fed entirely on "
Royal Jelly." This is a special honey food worked up with
the saliva of the chyle-stomach of the workers.
New
queens and drones will develop so that next spring when the old
queen and her helpers have died there will still be bumble bees
and a supply of honey.
Ants
