376 INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY CHAP. 



in the hive, but are fed on honey by the workers, or help 

 themselves from the honey-comb. They sleep a large part 

 of the day in corners of the hive, going out on warm sunny 

 days between twelve and three o'clock for a short fly and 

 a sleep out-of-doors, tucked away in the corolla of some 

 flower. The only time when they really arouse themselves 

 is when they join in the giddy upward rush of the marriage 

 flight with the new young queen. 



After the drone -brood cells have been pro- 

 , the workers begin to prepare the "royal 

 cradle " cells in which the new queens will 

 develop. Five or six of these may be built amongst the 

 other brood cells, usually at the edge of a brood-comb. 

 They are somewhat acorn-shaped, with the long axis placed 

 vertically, instead of horizontally as in the worker-brood 

 cells ; also the queen cell opens below, by a rather narrow 

 aperture (Fig. 297, # 2 ). 



In each of these large " royal " cells the old queen lays 

 an egg, allowing an interval of one or two days to elapse 

 between the laying of each, so that the young princesses will 

 hatch out in succession. These eggs, also, are apparently 

 similar to those which produced workers or drones, but the 

 larva, which after three days hatches from each, is fed by 

 the workers throughout its development on the special 

 "royal jelly," a richer, sweeter, more nutritious food than 

 that with which the other larvae are fed after the first day 

 or two (see p. 372). 



This food, together with the greater space allowed them 

 and their different position, hanging head downwards in the 

 cell, causes these royal grubs to develop more rapidly and 

 more completely than was possible to the worker grubs. 

 The queen grub is full grown in five days after hatching, and 

 is then sealed up in its cell and pupates. In seven more 

 days it is fully developed, and the young queen begins to 

 attempt to get free from her cell. 



That it is the food and special cell which cause the 

 development of the egg into a queen, or fully developed 

 mother-bee, is shown by the fact that if anything happens to 

 the egg in the queen cell, the workers can bring up a worker 

 larva in such a way that it becomes a queen. They choose 

 a larva not more than three days old, and enlarge its cell 



