524 Saw-flies, Gall-flies, Ichneumons, 



and honey is put into each coll, which is then capped, i.e., sealed over with 

 a thin layer of \va.\. The larva feeds itself for a day or so longer on the 

 '"bee-bread" and then pupates in the cell. The quiescent non-feeding 

 pupal stage lasts for thirteen days, when the fully developed bee issues from 

 the thin [)upal cuticle, gnaws away the wa.x cap and emerges from the cell. 

 For from ten days to two weeks the bee does not leave the hive; it busies 

 itself with indoor work, particularly nurse work, the feeding and care of 

 the young. Then it takes its place with the fully competent bees, makes 

 foraging expeditions or undertakes capably any other of the varied indus- 

 tries of the worker caste. 



. After numerous workers have been added to the community, egg-laying 

 by the queen going on constantly day after day, so that the young come to 

 maturity, not in broods, but consecutively, day after day, certain he.xagonal 

 cells of plainly larger diameter are made by the comb-building workers, and 

 in these the queen lays unjerlilized eggs. This extraordinary capacity for 

 producing either fertilized or unfertilized eggs, as demanded, depends upon 

 the queen's control of the male fertilizing cells held in the spermatheca. 

 This reservoir of fertilizing cells can be kept open as eggs pass down the ovi- 

 duct and by it on their way out of the body, thus allowing the spermatozoids 

 to swim out, ])cnetrate (through the micropyle in the egg-envelopes) and 

 fertilize the eggs, or it may be kept closed, preventing the issuance of the 

 spermatozoids and, consequently, fertilization. From the unfertilized eggs 

 laid in the larger cells hatch larvie which are fed and cared for in the same 

 way as the worker Iarv;c, but which require six days for full growth, the 

 pupal stage lasting fifteen days. When finally the fully developed bees 

 issue from these cells it will be found that all are males (drones). This 

 parthenogenetic production of drones, discovered about 1S40 by Dzierzon, 

 and long accepted as proved, was recently questioned by Dickel and one 

 or two other naturalists and was therefore reinvestigated by Petrunkewitsch 

 and others, with the result of confirming, on new evidence and by new 

 methods of investigation, the declarations of the discoverer of the fact. 



If, now, our community has increased so largely in numbers that its 

 quarters begin to be insufficient for further expansion, certain excited groups 

 of workers will be seen tearing down certain cells and replacing them by a new 

 giant cell which is usually built up around one of the fertilized eggs laid in a 

 small hexagonal cell. The egg hatches before the cell is finished, and the 

 larva lies in the large open cavity of the growing cell, on which numerous 

 nurses are in constant attendance. Often several of these unusual giant 

 cells may be built at one time. The larva which hatches from the fertilized 

 egg in one of these cells is fed the nutritious bee-jelly through all of its life, 

 little or no pollen or honey being given it. When the larva is five days 

 old a quantity of the milky semi-fluid jelly is put into the cell, which is then 



