58 CLASSIFICATION, PHYSIOLOGY, ETC. 



" So nicely do the bees calculate the quantity 

 which will be required, that none remains in the cell 

 when the larva is transformed to a nymph. It was 

 the opinion of Reaumur, and is still that of many 

 eminent naturalists, that farina does not constitute 

 the sole food of the bee-larva, but that it consists 

 of a mixture of farina with a certain proportion of 

 honey and water, partly digested in the stomachs of 

 the nursing bees, the relative proportions of honey 

 and farina varying according to the age of the young. 

 The compound at first is nearly insipid, but gradually 

 receives an accession of sweetness and acescency 

 which increase as the insects approach maturity. 



" The larva having derived support in the manner 

 above described, for four, five, or six days, according 

 to the season, continues to increase during that period, 

 till it occupies the whole breadth and nearly the length 

 of the cell. The nursing bees now seal up the cell, 

 with a light brown cover, externally, more or less 

 convex, (the cap of a drone cell is more convex than 

 that of a worker) and thus differing from that of 

 a honey-cell, which is paler and somewhat concave. 

 The larva is no sooner perfectly inclosed than it begins 

 to labor, alternately extending and shortening its 

 body, whilst it lines the cell by spinning round itself, 

 after the manner of the silk worm, a whitish silky 

 fiber or cocoon, by which it is encased as it were in 

 a pod or pellicle. ' The silken thread employed in 

 forming this covering proceeds from the middle part 

 of the under lip, and is in fact composed of two 



