216 LIFE STORIES OF AUSTRALIAN INSECTS. 

 Life History of a Bee. 



The cells of the comb are about one fifth of an 

 inch in diameter. When the egg hatches the larva 

 i<; a helpless grub or bee-maggot, for it is legless. 

 The food is placed in the cell with the larva, and 

 i'r partially floats in it. Nurse bees go from cell to 

 cell supplying the food, for they have thousands of 

 babies to feed. The brood cells or nurseries are in 

 the warmest corner of the hive. The larva moults 

 six times, and the moult skins are pushed down to, 

 the bottom of the cell. On pupating it reverses 

 its position in the cell, and turns out from its 

 stomach a certain amount of accumulated indigest- 

 ible food. Then with its last larval skin, it shuts off 

 the old larval skins and the food-waste, by mak- 

 ing a "floor-covering" of the skin. 



It now turns back to its old position with its 

 head towards the opening of its cell. It spins 

 a porous covering across the top of the cell, 

 shuts itself in and eventually pupates. Meanwhile 

 a nurse-bee finishes the work by spinning an addi- 

 tional external cap to the cell. Air can penetrate 

 both caps and thus the pupa can breathe. When 

 the adult emerges, it is paler in colour than the 

 normal worker. It now becomes a nurse-bee, and 

 acts as such for about three weeks. It has special 

 glands present to enable it to work up the food 

 of the bee-babies so that they can digest it. At the 

 end of three weeks these nurse-bees become fora- 

 gers; and the glands lose their functions. They 

 now gather pollen and flower-honey, bring it home 



