28 THE HUMBLE-BEE 1 
pupate. When very small they are yellowish white, 
but this colour soon changes to white with a grey- 
pink tinge imparted by the internal vessels and their 
contents. 
The larve, however, like the eggs, cannot be 
seen, for the queen keeps them covered with wax, 
in which they are completely enclosed as in a bag or 
skin. 
The larvee devour the pollen which forms their 

Fic. 8.—Eggs, Larve, and Pupz of Bomébus terrestris, slightly enlarged. 
bed, and also fresh pollen which is added and 
plastered on to the lump by the queen. The queen 
also feeds them with a liquid mixture of honey and 
pollen, which she prepares by swallowing some 
honey and then returning it to her mouth to be 
mixed with pollen, which she nibbles from the lump 
and chews in her mandibles, the mixture being 
swallowed and churned in the honey-sac. To feed 
the larvee the queen makes a small hole with her 
mandibles in the skin of wax that covers them, and 
