Wax-workers. 



241 



enormous number of journeys is required 

 before tlie little workers can brint:: home 

 sufficient honey to fill one cell. To j)r(A-ent 

 the honey running, the workers have resort 

 to an ingenious device : thev obtain 

 a little honey from one of their tirst tilled 

 cells, which is of a firmer consistence 

 owing to evaporation, and this is made 

 to float upon the new hone\'. This disc 

 of firmer honey floats upon he surface 

 and quite overcomes all tendenc\' of the 

 newer honey to run out. When the cell 

 is full, the workers cap it with a thin 

 sheet of wax attached to the edges. In 

 other cells pollen is stored up for the 

 sustenance of the grubs, the workers as 

 they return from excursions among the 

 flowers simply dropping their collections 

 into the cells and leaving those that 

 are on indoor duty to pack it. 



When the brood cells are ready the 

 mother-bee (usually styled the queen) 

 traverses the comb and lays an egg in each 

 character of each egg before she deposits it. 

 drone cells, then a vast number is laid in 

 kinds differ in size, just as the cells do. 

 In April and May she will la\- eggs at the 

 rate of fifteen hundred to two thousand 

 a week, and continue doing so. In six 

 weeks she has furnished ten or twt'Kc 

 thousand cells with occujxmts ; and 

 during the whole of one season she will 

 lav thirtv or forty thousand eggs. Durin- 

 her life she may produre as man\' as a 

 hundred thousand. 



The eggs hatch after three days, and 

 the minute grubs are at onc(" t(Mided by 

 the nurse-bees, who iced them with l)ee- 

 bread, which is a compound of honey and 

 pollen. On this diet th(^ grub thrixcs, and 

 when onlv live da\"s old it is lull-lt'd 

 and fills its cell. The nurse-bees then 

 close the cell with a cap made of wax and 

 pollen, which is poroiis and admits the air. 

 It is important to notice this di>tinction 



Photo hv 



II. Bttstin. 



Hind-Legs of Honey-Bee. 



The hind-leg of the bee is shown from above (right) and below, 

 inagnitied to make more clear the adaptation of the thigh 

 and shank to the purpose of pollen-carrying. 



cell. She appears to know what is the 



The first few may be deposited in the 



the worker cells. The eggs of the two 



PlinU, hy II. .^. I u.r.u,. I- .K.M >■ 



Bee's Brush and Comb. 



In connection with a hinge-joint of the foreleg there is a 

 brush and comb arrangement by which thi- bee's anteima? are 

 kept clean. The leg b( ing brought forward over the ant<'mia, 

 the latter is drawn through it. an<i .niv dust upon it is 

 brushed od. 



