THE INHABITANTS OF THE HIVE 41 



bees place over the cell, a cap which is made of wax 

 and pollen, and admits the air freely. Then the 

 young bee in the solitude of her own cell eats all the 

 food that has been provided, spins about herself a 

 cocoon of finest silk, which she weaves from a gland 

 which opens in her lip; this is a very, very delicate 

 cocoon, which remains in the cell as a lining, but so 

 delicate is it that not until years have elapsed do the 

 brood cells become contracted by these many silk 

 wrappings of bees which have been developed in 

 them. When the worker sheds for the last time her 

 skeleton, she sheds the lining of the » stomach and 

 alimentary canal and all its contents, and changes 

 to a pupa, which is a state of utter quiescence and 

 during which wonderful changes take place in her 

 anatomy. These changes which occur in the pupa 

 are almost like new creation, for the legs, wings, an- 

 tennae, and all of the other organs of the adult bee 

 are developed from what was within the body of the 

 footless, white grub. 



Twenty-one days from the date of the laying of 

 the egg, twelve days after the cell is capped, the 

 worker bee sheds her pupa skin, pushes it behind 

 her to the bottom of the cell, cuts a lid in the cap of 

 her cell and pushes her way out, very likely after 

 some friendly nurse has given her a little food to 

 "stay her stomach." As she crawls out, she is a 

 silvery-gray bee, as damp as if she had been out in 

 a fog; no one hastens to greet her, or pays her the 

 slightest attention, which is quite different from the 

 case with the young ant, which is always fussed over 



