3t 



had no feet, but small knobs existed on each side of the segments, 

 giving it a slight power of motion. This grub was veiy voracious, and 

 was sedulously suppHed with food by its nurses. On this food it 

 throve until in four days it was fully grown and filled the cell. The 

 worker then sealed over the cell, and the grub spun a cocoon of silk in 

 which it grew to maturity, which is in twenty-one days. It then burst 

 the covering of the cell and flew out. The cells for the queens were 

 four or five in number, and they hung with their mouths downward. 

 They were four times as large as the others, and much stronger. The 

 queen grubs were so largely supplied with food, that they were in a 

 thick bed of jelly, some of which usually remained after hatching. 

 They arrived at maturity one-third earlier than the others, in conse- 

 quence of the difference of their food, which also prolonged the life of 

 the queen to two or three years instead of a few months. The young 

 queen was jealously guarded by the workers from the queen mother, 

 and at its nuptial flight the old queen generally left with other bees, 

 who gorged themselves with honey before departing to seek a new 

 hive. 



Mr. H. Goss asked if a difference in the temperature of the cell 

 of the queen bee had anything to do with the development of a worker 

 into a queen. 



Mr. C. p. Smith did not think it to be the case, and in answer 

 to further questions from Mr. Goss, he said he did not know that the 

 vertical position of the cell had anything to do with it ; or if the food 

 given to the queen was different to that given to the workers. 



Mr. Goss said he had seen it stated that a queen laid from 

 70,000 to 80,000 eggs. 



Mr. Smith added that a bee only lived seven or eight weeks 

 during the summer. 



Dr. Ingle called attention to the shape of the cells, and said it 

 had been a mathematical problem as to whether the equilateral 

 triangle, the hexagonal, or the square shape would waste the least 

 space, and it had been found that the bee adopted the one— the 

 hexagonal. 



