BEES AND FEOWEKS." 



By E. L. VtOVVjr.K. 

 Pro/"e.s.sr»r (/» }fus('inii d'Histoirc ydtiirrllr, Paris. 



Tliat Ikh's visit floAvors i^; well known to pvervbocly, as is the fact 

 that tlicso constant visits of thoii's ai-e by no moans disinterested. 

 Of the flower the bee asks two thinos: The pollen dnst from the sta- 

 mens and the sugared nectar, whicli most often is fonnd at the bottom 

 of the corolla. The pollen serves as food innnediately, but among the 

 social bees and very probably among the solitaiy species as well, the 

 nectar nnist first undergo a series of changes. The cane sugar in this 

 liquid, under the action of salivary products, is transformed into 

 glucose. It acquires a peculiar taste and odor, and, as honey, is de- 

 posited by the bee in the cells of its hive, where it is mixed with 

 pollen to form a nourishing paste, or consumed at once by its collector. 



In their wild state adult bees live on honey and pollen exclusively; 

 no other food will support them. Under domestication they will 

 accept certain substitutes, meal in the place of pollen, and sugared 

 water instead of nectar, but, when possible, they will invariably 

 return to the flowers and feed as do their wild relations. 



Among the solitary species, the female bee makes this paste of pollen 

 and honey for her young: among the social bees, especially with our 

 common honeybee, it is the sterile females or drones who attend to 

 this duty. To speak more exactly I may say that the larva> of the 

 honeybee in their early stages are nourished with a peculiar jelly, 

 rich in albuminoids secreted by the drone mirses, and that the larvit^ 

 of the queen bee subsist on this all through thtMr evolution. Since 

 this jelly is produced by the nurses out of the honey and pollen, I do 

 not exaggerate when I say that these two substances are as necessary 

 to young bees as to old. 



oAn abridged translation, l)y permission, from lievue gern'rale des Sciences 

 'pures et appliques, Paris, April 1.5, 1904. 



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