CREATION BY EVOLUTION 



Vb 



is passing in and out, and by night the honey-pot may be 

 quite empty of its thin and watery contents. In about four 

 days the larvae hatch out as whitish grubs and begin to feed 

 upon the pollen bed upon which they have been lying. At 

 first they feed upon any mixed pollen and honey provided 



by the queen. As they grow older 

 they are individually and compul- 

 sorily fed. 



In a week the grub-like larvae 

 turn into chrysalids and spin about 

 their bodies a thin, papery, but 

 tough cocoon. The queen now 

 removes what is left of the waxen 

 cell, and the pale little cocoons 

 stand on their ends like mummies. 

 The outer rows are taller than those 

 in the centre, and in the groove thus 

 formed the queen lies brooding over 

 the pupae, which hatch out on the 

 eleventh day, when the complete 

 female working bumble-bees step 

 out into the darkness (Fig. 15). At first they are weak and 

 tottery, yet they manage to make their way to the honey-pot 

 and take a deep draught of the thin fluid before returning to 

 safety beneath the body of the mother; but in two days they 

 grow up and begin to help in the work of the nest. They start 

 collecting pollen and honey as a store of food for the second 

 and later broods of larvae, for the queen is now laying batches 

 of eggs every few days. In fact, the second batch of larvae is 

 ready for the attention of the lately hatched first batch. In 

 the hive of the honey-bee the workers do not set about gath- 

 ering food till they are two weeks old, but in the home of the 

 bumble-bee this task is undertaken by the workers at the 



[ 202] 



Fig. 14. — ^The begin- 

 ning of a bumble-bee's 

 nest, showing at a the 

 pillar of pollen and 

 honey on which the queen 

 will deposit her first 

 eggs, and at h the honey- 

 pot. 



