4 



54 NATURAL HISTORY. [CH. III. 



The length of the period which elapses before 

 they assume their ultimate form, varies in the three 

 kinds of bees, and is thus stated by Huber. " The 

 worm of the worker takes twenty days, the male 

 twenty-four, the queen sixteen days, in arriving at 

 maturity. The worker remains three days in the 

 egg ; five in the grub state, when the bees close up 

 its cell with a waxen covering ; it is thirty-six hours 

 in spinning its cocoon ; in three days it changes to 

 a nymph, passes six in that form, and then comes 

 forth a perfect bee. 



" The male passes three days in the egg ; six and 

 a half as a worm, and on the twenty-fourth makes 

 its appearance as a winged animal. 



" The royal insect passes three days in the egg ; 

 is five a worm, when the bees close its cell, and it 

 immediately begins its cocoon, which is finished 

 in twenty-four hours. During eleven days, and 

 even sixteen hours of the twelfth, it remains in a 

 state of complete repose. Its transformation into a 

 nymph then takes place, in which state four days 

 and a part of a fifth are passed." 



On the fifth day after her appearance, the queen 

 quits the hive for the purpose of fecundation : for- 

 ty-six hours afterward she begins to lay eggs, and 

 a hive will often consist of forty thousand inhabit- 

 ants, the most of them her own offspring. The 

 first eggs of the queen always give birth to workers. 

 In spring she lays about two thousand eggs of 

 males, resumes it again in August, but during the 

 rest of the intervals she exclusively lays workers' 

 eggs. It is curious that oviposition is retarded by 

 cold ; during winter it does not take place. Huber 

 relates an instance where a queen, instead of laying 

 her eggs forty-six hours after fecundation, did not do 

 so for several months, owing to her impregnation 

 having taken place just before winter. 



The queen must be at least eleven months old, 

 before she begins to lay the eggs of males. The 



