THE HONEY BEE 79 



of the loss of their stores. The tenderest mother 

 could not watch over her children with more affec- 

 tion, nor supply them with nourishment more impar- 

 tially, or in greater abundance. At the same time ix 

 is done without waste, for the quantity is so propor- 

 tioned to the demand, that none of it remains in the 

 cells where the larvae undergo their transformation to 

 the nymph state." * 



At the moment of being hatched, the insect pre- 

 sents the appearance of a small straight worm, com- 

 posed of several ventral wings. It quickly grows 

 so as to touch the sides of the cell, when it con- 

 tracts its body, and coils itself into a semicircular 

 figure, and continues enlarging its dimensions till the 

 extremities meet, and form a complete ring. In this 

 state it continues, receiving food from its nurses fa" 

 five days, when it ceases to eat ; its supplies are, oi 

 course, cut off, and the bees proceed to seal up the 

 cell with a waxen cover, of a brownish colour, and 

 slightly convex. Thus left to itself, the larva begins 

 spinning around its body, after the manner of the 

 silk-worm, a fine silken film or cocoon, which com- 

 pletely envelops it. " The silken thread employed 

 in forming this covering," Kirby and Spence tell us, 

 ff proceeds from the middle part of the under lip, and 

 is in fact composed of two threads, gummed together, 

 as they issue from the two adjoining orifices of the 

 spinner/' In the formation of its cocoon, the larva 

 occupies thirty-six hours, and in three days after, it 

 is metamorphosed into a nymph or pupa terms ap- 

 * Traite des Abeilles. 



