242 



Marvels of Insect Life, 



between the capping of the honey-cehs and the pollen-cehs. Honey would ooze 

 through the porous cap, and the wax cap would cause the asphyxiation of the 

 chrysalis. The grub then spins its cocoon, and changes into the chrysalis condition. 

 About a fortnight later, it appears as a winged worker, and rests for half a day to 

 allow its integuments to harden, after which it is ready to take up duty as a nurse 

 or other indoor worker. The evolution of the drone follows much the same course, 

 but, so far as information goes, when it emerges as a bee, bigger than a worker and with 

 compound eyes that meet on the top of the head, it does no work beyond taking 

 part in the ventilation of the hive by fanning with its wings. 



The " royal " cells are mere cups when the eggs are laid in them. In three 

 days also these eggs are hatched, and the nurse-bees drench the young grub with 

 a special food, the " royal jelly." As the grub grows the cell-walls are built up, 

 and in five days full growth is completed, when the cell is finished and sealed up 

 for a fortnight, by which time the female bee issues from her chrysalis-skin, and 



is soon ready if need be to 

 accompany a swarm to found 

 a new colony. Or she may be 

 killed before emergence by her 

 jealous mother. 



Whilst on the subject of 

 wax, we ought to mention that 

 for stopping cracks or sealing 

 up the bodies of invaders whom 

 they have killed but cannot 

 remove, the bees use a sub- 

 stance to which the ancients 

 gave the name of propolis. 

 This is the gummy varnish 

 gathered from the leaf-buds of 

 poplar, horse-chestnut, pines, 

 and the stems of other plants. 

 They take it home, as they do 

 pollen, in the baskets on their hind-legs ; but they cannot discharge their loads 

 of propolis as they do their pollen : it is so stickv that it has to be pulled off by 

 other workers. 



We have referred to the fact that the combs are built from the top downwards. 

 The favourite explanation of this is that the bees are impelled by instinct so to 

 build, the hanging of a weight of honey in so soft a substance as wax being a much 

 safer plan than resting the weight upon the soft basal cells, which would collapse 

 under it. Mr. Tickner Edwardes, one of the most charming writers on the 

 honey-bee, shows, we think, conclusively that it is inherited experience and not 

 blind instinct that impels the wax-workers. In a passage worth quoting {Lore of 

 the Honey-Bee) he says : " It is undoubtedlv long racial experience, and not inability 

 to follow the humanh- approved method, that guides them here. Rarely — so 

 rarely that the writer, in the course of man\' years spent among bets, has seen only 



Plioio by] [H. Bastiii. 



Grubs of Honey-Bee. 



The grubs of the honey-bee lead uneventful lives, each in its separate cell, where 

 food is brought to it as required. They are shown magnified six times. The one on 

 the right is changing to a chrysalis. 



