The history of the Honey bee, its wonderful instincts, its elaborate cells and complex economy, have engrossed the attention of the best observers, even from the time of Virgil, who sang of the Ligurian bee. The literature of the art of bee-keeping is already very extensive. Numerous bee journals and manuals of bee-keeping testify to the importance of this art, while able mathematicians have studied the mode of formation of the hexagonal cells,[1] and physiologists have investigated the intricate problems of the mode of generation and development of the bee itself. In discussing these difficult questions, we must rise from the study of the simple to the complex, remembering that-- "All nature widens upward. Evermore The simpler essence lower lies: More complex is more perfect--owning more Discourse, more widely wise." and not forget to study the humbler allies of the Honey bee. We shall, in observing the habits and homes of the wild bees, gain a clearer insight into the mysteries of the hive. The great family of bees is divided into social and solitary species. The social kinds live in nests composed of numerous cells in which the young brood are reared. These cells vary in form from those which are quite regularly hexagonal, like those of the Hive bee, to those which are less regularly six-sided, as in the stingless bee of the tropics (Melipona), until in the Humble bee the cells are isolated and cylindrical in form. Before speaking of the wild bees, let us briefly review the life of the Honey bee. The queen bee having wintered over with many workers, lays her eggs in the spring, first in the worker, and, at a later period, in the drone-cells. Early in the summer the workers construct the large, flask-shaped queen-cells, which are placed on the edge of the comb, and in these the queen larvae are fed with rich and choice food. The old queen deserts the nest, forming a new colony. The new-born queen takes her marriage flight high in the air with a drone, and on her return undertakes the management of the hive, and the duty of laying eggs. When the supply of queens is exhausted, the workers destroy the drones. The first brood of workers live about six weeks in summer, and then give way to a new brood. The queens, according to Von Berlepsch, are known to live five years, and during their whole life lay more than a million eggs.