11 LIFE-HISTORY OF BOWBUS 29 
injects through her mouth a little of the mixture 
amongst the larva, which devour it greedily. Her 
abdomen contracts suddenly as she injects the food, 
and as soon as she has given it she rapidly closes 
up the hole with her mandibles. While the larve 
remain small they are fed collectively, but when they 
crow large each one receives a separate injection. 
As the larva grow the queen adds wax to their 
covering, so that they remain hidden. When they 
are about five days old the lump containing them, 
which has hitherto been expanding slowly, begins 
to enlarge rapidly, and swellings, indicating the 
position of each larva, begin to appear init. Two 
days later, that is, on the eleventh day after the 
eggs were laid, the larve are full-grown, and each 
one then spins around itself an oval cocoon, which 
is thin and papery but very tough. ‘The queen 
now clears away most of the brown wax covering, 
revealing the cocoons, which are pale yellow. 
These first cocoons number from seven to six- 
teen, according to the species and the prolificness of 
the queen. They are not piled one on another, but 
stand upright side by side, and they adhere to one 
another closely, so that they seem welded into a 
compact mass. They do not, however, form a flat- 
topped cluster, but the cocoons at the sides are 
higher than those in the middle, so that a groove is 
formed; this groove is curved downwards at its 
ends, and in it the queen sits, pressing her body 
close to the cocoons, and stretching her abdomen 
to almost double its usual length so that it will 
