VARIATION OF HOOKS ON THE HIND WING OF THE HONEY BEE (APIS MELLIFERA L.)

¹ From the Institute for Biological Research, Johns Hopkins University

The data presented in this paper show that the average number of hooks in the honey bee is a characteristic which is differently developed among single colonies, sexes, castes, and races. As a general rule the southern races have a large number of hooks in worker bees and probably in drones. The queens and drones are more variable in regard to this character than the worker bees. In this respect the relations differ from those in other social insects (ants, wasps and termites), where the asexual caste is the most variable. The experiment with underfeeding of larvæ showed a decrease of the average number of hooks and the producing of specimens with defective venation—incomplete second intercubitus vein.