30 AUSTRALIAN BEE LORE AND BEE CULTURE- 



not weaned and fed on more solid matter as is done in the case of 

 both drones and workers. This queen-food is composed of albumen 

 45.14, fatty substances 13.55, and sugar 20.39. 



When the shell of the egg breaks the tiny inmate is seen 

 wriggling backwards and forwards as it enters into the world. 

 It has now entered its larval stage and can be seen slightly curved 

 lying floating in the royal jelly. As it grows it will lie more 

 circularly until it forms a complete ring. Very soon the princess 

 outgrows the room in which she has been reclining. When thus 

 grown she commences to lift her head above her body, or we had 

 better say lowers her head beneath her body, because as she ad- 

 vances towards perfection her head is downwards and her abdomen 

 upwards. The larval queen is generally fed by the workers for 

 about four or five days. 



Just before this well-fed baby-girl changes from a larva to a 

 pupa "a sealing," says Cheshire, "full of minute perforations is 

 added by the never-weary attendants, and the princess weaves 

 within a cocoon of very singular structure." When the weaving 

 of this cocoon is completed she "rests from her labours" for about 

 twenty-four hours; soon her "works follow," and another stage 

 in her metamorphosis begins. She becomes a chrysalis, nymph, 

 or pupa. All these synonymous terras are used for this stage of 

 her development, from the time she has completed her cocoon until 

 she becomes the perfect insect — the imago. The whole time occu- 

 pied from the laying of the egg till the inmate leaves the queen's 

 cell is about sixteen days, perhaps a little more and sometimes a 

 little less, according to the temperature and other local circum- 

 stances. 



At the time this "princess" was entering the chrysalis stage 

 the workers were very eager to seal her in while the work of 

 cocoon-building was in progress. As the third transformation 

 nears completion the workers are as anxious to remove the sealing 

 as they were to construct it only a few days or about a week before. 

 The riping queen may always be known {i.e., the queen-cell in 

 which the inmate is preparing to emerge) by the removal of the 

 wax and pollen covering with which she was lately imprisoned 

 and the dark-brown silky cocoon becoming exposed. When this 

 uncovering of the cocoon takes place the enclosed tenant will soon 

 prepare for her escape. With her jaws, like a pair of strong 

 clippers, she will bite through the exposed cocoon (see diagram), 

 twisting around in her cell as she performs the work of self- 

 liberation. Cutting a circular piece from her silken shroud, she 



