9-7 



PSYCHE. 



[FebriKity 1S94. 



and thus more closely resembling the 

 hive-bee, warrants me in quoting some- 

 what largel}' from his very readable 

 paper. He says : — 



The nest, originally that of a mouse, was 

 made of dead grass and lined with wax. It 

 contained when captured the queen and a 

 large number of workers of various sizes, as 

 well as eggs, and larvae in various stages of 

 development. The precise functions of the 

 different sized workers were not evident, but 

 in general the larger ones attended to the 

 mending of the grass covering of the nest 

 and to the bringing in of honey, while the 

 smaller ones for the most part did the inside 

 "house-work," the wa.K-patching and the 

 nursing, described below. The nursing, in- 

 deed, was never done so far as was observed, 

 by a large or even a medium-sized bee. 



The eggs are laid, several together, in 

 cavities in a mass of wax. This is in direct 

 opposition to the statement of Putnam (1. c.) 

 and of various English writers consulted by 

 me, they stating that the eggs are laid in a 

 mass of pollen, upon which the larvae, when 

 liatched, feed. The substance was tested first 

 by the application of heat, when it melted 

 precisely like bees-uax. It would not dis- 

 solve in watei', while pollen and an artificial 

 mixture of pollen and honey readily did so. A 

 microscopic examination of the w'ax showed, 

 however, that it contained a great number of 

 pollen grains; but this would be expected 

 when it is considered how much pollen is 

 used about the nest. The larvae, after hatch- 

 ing, remained incased in a shell of wax, and 

 soon became separated by a wall of the same 

 substance each from its neighbor. 



Their method of obtaining nourishment — 

 instead of by eating away the pollen walls, in 

 which they are supposed to be incased, the 

 workers constantly adding more to the out- 

 side — is strikingly different. They are fed 

 by a mixture of pollen and honey supplied to 

 them by a worker. The operatioTi will be 

 described later. 



The larvae, when grown, spin a silken 

 cocoon, and at the end of the nymphal stage, 

 the duration of which was unfortunately not 

 noted, emerge by gnawing about the apex of 

 the cocoon so as to form a lid. When the 

 adults first come out their subsequently 

 yellow hairs are pale, almost white. As soon 

 as the bee has left its nymphal quarters the 

 other workers cut away about the upper half 

 of the cell and remove the debris. The part 

 which is left furnishes a receptacle for the 

 raw honey and pollen as it is brought into 

 the nest. 



When returning from the field the bees 

 settled down upon the alighting-block at the 

 entrance of the box, when full laden, with a 

 low, abruptly ceasing hum, always distin- 

 guishable from that of a bee w-ilhout honey 

 or pollen. The bees went directly, in a most 

 business-like way, to the pots, deposited their 

 loads, and went away again or busied them- 

 selves about the nest. If honey-laden, the 

 bee perched herself on the margin of a honey- 

 pot, lowered her head into it, and then drew 

 her abdomen far in. thus forcing the honey 

 from her mouth. If pollen-laden, the bee 

 balanced herself, with her middle and 

 cephalic pairs of legs, on the edge of a pollen- 

 pot, head outward, spread her wings, and 

 then scraped the pollen-masses from her 

 corbicul£e by rubbing the posterior legs 

 together. 



The mode of feeding the larvae is as 

 follows : One of the smaller workers, which 

 may be called a nurse-bee, goes to a honey- 

 pot, from which she presumably draws a 

 small amount of honey, and proceeds next to 

 a pollen-pot. She remains here, with her 

 head in the pot, undoubtedly preparing a 

 mixture of pollen and honey, for ordinarily 

 about ten minutes. Then going to one of 

 the larvae, which lie in circular form in their 

 chambers, she injects into the cell, through 

 a small opening previously made, usually by 

 another worker, a brownish fluid of the con- 

 sistency of honey. This is greedily eaten by 

 the larva. Whether the larvae of both females 

 and workers are fed in the same manner and 



