BEE. 
303 
when the hive is in possession of maggots, and 
deprived of their queen. 
“ What may be called the complete process of 
the egg, namely, from the time of l^iying to the 
birth of the bee, (that is, the time of hatching,) ' 
the life of the maggot, and the life of the chrysalis, 
is, I believe, shorter than in most insects. It is 
not easy to fix the time when the eggs hatch: I 
have been led to imagine it was in five days. 
When they hatch, we find the young maggot lying 
coiled up in the bottom of the cell, in some de- 
gree surrounded with a transparent fluid. In 
many of the cells, where the eggs have just hatch- 
ed, we find the skin standing in its place, either 
not yet removed, or not pressed down by the 
maggot. There is now an additional employment 
for the labourers, namely, the feeding and nursing 
the young maggots. We may suppose the queen 
has nothing to do with this, as there are at all 
times labourers enough in the hive for such pur- 
poses, especially too, as she never does bring the 
materials, as every other of the tribe is obliged to 
do at first; therefore she seems to be a queen by 
liereditary, or rather, by natural right, while the 
humble bee, wasp, hornet, &c. seem rather to 
work themselves into royalty, or mistresses of the 
community. The bees are readily detected feed- 
ing the young maggot; and indeed a young mag- 
got might easily be brought up, by any person 
who would be attentive to feed it. They open 
their two lateral pincers to receive the food, and 
swallow it. As they grow, they cast their coats. 
V. VI. P. II. 
