WAX-WORKERS 155 



The legless larvas when they are about five days 

 old increase the size of the hollows in which they 

 repose, each occupying its own cell in the pollen 

 mass, and two days later spinning a tough papery 

 cocoon. The mother about this time clears away 

 the brown wax she has been continually adding 

 to for the protection of the grubs, and reveals the 

 upper ends of all these cocoons standing side by 

 side. A depression runs through the middle of 

 the group which indicates where the mother's 

 body has lain in her brooding vigils. This groove 

 she still continues to occupy, for her offspring still 

 need warmth to help their development even 

 when they have changed into chrysalides. 



On the twenty-second or twenty-third day after 

 the eggs were laid she has the reward for all her 

 labour, for the chrysalides develop into bees and 

 begin to bite through the tops of the cocoons and 

 emerge. In this they are assisted by the mother, 

 who enlarges the openings to make their exit 

 easier. The newly emerged bees are all small 

 workers, and as soon as their legs and wings have 

 become firm and their wetted matted coats are 

 dry, they begin to assist the mother in collecting 

 provisions for their larval sisters. For all this 

 time the mother bee has been making other cells 

 and filling them with eggs, so that the broods come 

 on with intervals of only two or three days between 

 them. 



The new workers start collecting out-of-doors 

 when only three or four days old, and do their 



