Honey bees have long been the subject of insect censuses. Jan Swammerdam in 1737 counted the cells and bees of three Dutch straw hives. In 1740 Rene de Reaumur counted 43,008 bees in a large swarm. Strong colonies in modern beehives contain about 55,000 bees. As many as 30,000 may leave a hive in a swarm.

A good colony with a vigorous queen should produce about 200,000 bees in a year. The normal egg production during the lifetime of a queen bee has been estimated to be as high as 1,500,000, but probably it does not usually exceed 500,000.

Some wild species of bees may also have large colonies. In the South American stingless bees (Trigona), 50,000 to 100,000 individuals may be in a single nest. The largest known nest of a tropical bee, Trigona postica, had 27 combs with about 64,000 cells and 70,000 to 80,000 adult bees.

The social wasps and hornets have rather small colonies. The largest nests range from a few hundred individuals to several thousand.

How many insects are there? And how many kinds of insects? Maybe we shall never know. But wherever we go and whether we see them or not, we are surrounded by countless millions of insects. Every forest, every field, every back yard, every roadway is a gigantic insect zoo. A wide world of endless variety and interest is open to all who will do a little investigating on their own.

House fly.

CURTIS W. SABROSKY has been a specialist in Diptera (flies) in the division of insect identification of the Bureau of Entomology and Plant Quarantine since 1946. He was instructor and assistant professor of entomology for 8 years in Michigan State College and has served with the United States Public Health Service on studies of malaria mosquitoes. He is the author of numerous publications on the classification of flies and on rules governing the scientific names of animals.