MUTUAL AID AND COMMUNAL LIFE AMOXG ANBLVLS 3R^ 



ing raises the temperature of tlie ])ces' l)odies, and this warmth 

 given off to the air, also lielps make evaporation more rapid. 

 In addition to bringing in food tlie workers also bring in, when 

 necessary, "propolis," or the resinous guni of certain trees, 

 which they use in repairing the hive, as closing uj) cracks and 

 crevices in it. 



In many of the cells there will be found, not jiollen or 

 honey, but the eggs or the young bees in larval or pupal con- 

 dition (Fig. 243). The cpieen moves about through the hive, 

 hiying eggs. She deposits only one egg in a cell. In three 

 days the egg liatches, 

 and the yoimg l^ee ap- 

 pears as a heli)less soft, 

 white, footless gi-ul) or 

 larva. It is cared for 

 by certain of the 

 workers, that mav be 

 called nurses. These 

 nurses do not differ 

 structurally from the 

 other workers, but they 

 have the sjoecial duty 

 of caring for the help- 

 less young bees. They 

 do not go out for pol- 

 len or honey, but stay in the hive. They are usually the 

 new bees — i. e., the youngest or most recently added workers. 

 After they act as nurses for a week or so they take their 

 places with the food-gathering workers, and other new })ees 

 act as nurses. The nurses feed the yoimg or larval bees at 

 first with a highly nutritious food called bee jelly, whicli the 

 nurses make in their stomach, and regm-gitate for the larva\ 

 After the larvae are two or three days old they are fed with jjollrn 

 and honey. Finally, a small mass of food is ]Mit into the cell, 

 and the cell is "capped "or covered with wax. I^ach larva, 

 after eating all its food, in two or three days more changes into 

 a pupa, which lies cpiiescent without eating for thirteen days, 

 when it changes into a full-grown l)ee. The new l)ee breaks 

 open the cap of the cell with its jaws, and comes out into the 

 hive, ready to take up its share of tlie work for tlie conununity. 

 In a few cases, however, the lif(> history is dilTcn^it . Tlie nursed 

 26 



Fig. 243. — Cells containing eggs, larvrr, and pupa? 

 of the honeybee. The lower, large, irregular cells 

 are the queen cells. (After Benton.) 



