f LIFE-HISTORY OF BOMBUS 33 
cellfuls, before any are laid on the other side. It is 
an interesting fact that the cocoons on which these 
eggs are laid are not absolutely upright but are in- 
clined inwards (see diagram), and the egg-cells are 
constructed, not on the heads of the cocoons, where 
they would hinder the exit of the emerging bees, 
but on their outer sides. 
As each cell seldom contains less than six, and 
sometimes twelve or more eggs, a large family is 
soon in course of development. 
5 





5 
A 
Fic. 1o.—Diagram of the initial stages of the Humble-bee’s Brood, 
S\ 
4G 

shown in vertical section. 
ihe lasvee that hateh- from the first of these 
batches of eggs are generally approaching the most 
rapid period of their growth when the first workers 
emerge, and so the services of the latter commence 
at the very time they begin to be most needed. 
A little reflection will make it clear that the 
cocoons in the first cluster and the cells of eggs 
upon them are arranged in the best manner that 
could be devised for deriving the most heat from 
the queen’s body. ‘The cocoons are pressed close 
together, those in the middle often assuming a 
hexagonal shape (seen by cutting the cluster horizon- 
tally into two parts), like the cells of a honey-bee’s 
D 
