3o6 
BEfi. 
or cuticles j but how often they throw their coats, 
while in the maggot state, I do not know. I ob- 
served that they often removed their eggs ; I 
also find they very often shift the maggot into 
another cell, even when very large. The maggots 
grow larger and larger till they nearly fill the cell; 
and by this time they require no more food, and 
are ready to be inclosed for the chrysalis state: 
how this period is discovered I do not know, for 
in every other insect, as far as I am acquainted, 
it is an operation of the maggot, or caterpillar 
itself ; but in the common bee, it is an operation 
of the perfect animal; probably it arises from the 
maggot refusing food. The time between their 
being hatched and their lieing inclosed is, I be- 
lieve, four days ; at least, from repeated observa- 
tions, it comes nearly to that time; when ready 
for the chrysalis state, the bees cover over the 
mouth of the cell, with a substance of a light 
brown colour, much in the same manner that they 
cover the honey, excepting that, in the present 
instance, the covering is convex externally, and 
appears not to be entirely wax, but a mixture of 
wax and farina. The maggot is now perfectly 
inclosed, and it begins to line the cell and cover- 
ing of the mouth above mentioned, with a silk it 
spins out similar to the silk-worm, and which 
makes a kind of pod for the chrysalis. Bonnet 
observed, that, in one instance, the cell was too 
short for the chrysalis, and it broke its covTring, 
and formed its pod higher, or more convex than 
common: this I can conceive possible: we often 
