482 iNSTlNCt OF INSECtiSi 



assigned them. But the working-bees, as if aware that 

 in these circumstances the cells would be too short to 

 contain the larvae when fully grown, extended their 

 lengthy even before the eggs were hatched^. 



Bees close up the cells of the grubs, previously to 

 their transformation, with a cover or lid of wax; and 

 in hanging its abode with a silken tapestry before it 

 assumes the pupa state, the grub requires that the cell 

 should not be too short for its movements. Bonnet 

 having placed a swarm in a very flat glass hive, the 

 bees constructed one of the combs parallel to one of 

 the principal sides, where it was so straight that they 

 could not give to the cells their ordinary depth. The 

 queen, however, laid eggs in them, and the workers 

 daily nourished the grubs, and closed the cells at th6 

 period of transformation. A few days afterwards he 

 was surprised to perceive in the lids, holes more or 

 less large, out of which the grubs partly projected, the 

 cells having been too short to admit of their usual 

 movements. He was curious to know how the bees 

 would proceed. He expected that they would pull all 

 the grubs out of the cells, as they commonly do when 

 great disorders in the combs take place. But he did 

 not sufficiently give credit to the resources of their 

 instinct. They did not displace a single grub — they 

 left them in their cells : but as they saw that these cells 

 were not deep enough, they closed them afresh with 

 lids much more convex than ordinary, so as to give to 

 them a sufficient depth ; and from that time no more 

 holes were made in the lids. 



The working bees, in closing up the cells containing 



»Huber,i. 119. 



