40 THE HUMBLE-BEE II 
that it is freshly gathered and consumed every day, 
while the honey in the cocoons is thick, sometimes 
exceedingly so, showing that it is stored in these 
for use in times of scarcity. As the larger and 
newer cocoons become available for the storage of 
food, the oldest ones at the bottom of the comb are 
emptied and used no more, except in a time of 
plenty, when all the rest are full. In underground 
nests, where all available space is likely to be needed 
for the expansion of the comb, the walls of these 
abandoned cocoons are often bitten down, and the 
comb sinks. Wasps, it is well known, enlarge their 
nest cavity according to their requirements by dig- 
ging out little lumps of earth and flying away with 
them, but I have never seen humble-bees do this. 
The pollen, which is really a stiff paste of pollen 
and honey, is never put into the same cells as the 
honey. During the feeding of the first larvae the 
queen deposits her pollen around the cell that 
contains them; here it is soon consumed, so that 
no receptacle is needed or made for it. Later on, 
however, as the comb grows, the pollen is placed 
in special cells, the nature of which depends upon 
the species. Lafzdarius stores it under the brood 
in vacated cocoons, and sometimes also in small 
waxen cells. Zervestris and /ucorum store it in one 
or two, afterwards increased to three or four, large 
waxen cells, which are built, sometimes singly, 
sometimes joined together, on top of the cocoons 
about, or not far from, the centre of the comb ; these 
waxen cells, as the comb grows, rise like columns 
