CH. IV.] THE HIVE BEE. 79 



have always one of their sides towards the side of 

 the hive. They serve only to hold honey wanted 

 for the daily consumption of the little republic ; and 

 the queen has never been seen laying her eggs in any 

 cells of this kind. The cells are usually horizontal ; 

 but the long cells just mentioned are frequently in- 

 clined towards the horizon." 



It has been already stated, that when the grubs 

 of bees are about to be transformed into nymphs, 

 the workers carefully close up the cells in which 

 they are lodged with a lid. This precaution is ne- 

 cessary, in order that their transformation should 

 be effected in security. The lid used for this pur- 

 pose is in some degree convex, and never flat like 

 the lids which shut up the honey-cells ; and by this 

 means the breeding cells may always be distin- 

 guished from the honey-cells. When a cell has 

 been thus closed up, the grub sets about lining the 

 whole of its walls ; this operation requires that it 

 should move : hence it is necessary that the cell 

 should be neither too narrow nor too short, to allow 

 it to move freely. A swarm, which Bonnet had 

 placed in a very flat glass hive, had constructed a 

 large comb, running parallel with one of the sides 

 of the hive ; but because the space was narrow, the 

 bees had not been able to give the cells the usual 

 depth. These were common cells; nevertheless, 

 the queen did not omit laying in them; and the 

 workers fed the grubs which proceeded from these 

 eggs. Nor did they fail to shut up the cells when 

 the grubs were on the point of being transformed. 



Some days after they had been so shut up, holes 

 were observed in the lids, more or less in diameter, 

 through which a part of the body of each worm 

 had protruded. It appeared that the cells had not 

 the necessary depth, and that the grubs, finding 

 themselves too much hampered for room, had 

 pushed roughly against the lids, from which they 

 had detached pieces of various sizes. It was in- 



