62 CLASSIFICATION, PHYSIOLOGY, ETC. 



until the following June.' And this is the case, say 

 they, with a vast number of other insects. Reaumur 

 proved the influence of temperature by effecting the 

 regular change in a hot-house during the month of 

 January. He also proved it conversely by having 

 recourse to an ice-house in summer, which enabled 

 him to retard the development for a whole year. 



" The larvae of bees, though without feet, are not 

 always without motion. They advance from their 

 first station at the bottom of the cell in a spiral direc- 

 tion ; this movement for the first three days is so 

 slow as to be scarcely perceptible, but after that it is 

 more easily discerned. The animal now makes two 

 entire revolutions in about an hour and three-quarters, 

 and when the period of its metamorphosis arrives, it 

 is scarcely more than two lines from the mouth x of the 

 cell. Its attitude, which is always the same, is a 

 strong curve. This occasions the inhabitant of a 

 horizontal cell to be always perpendicular to the 

 horizon, and that of a vertical one to be parallel with 

 it." 



u The young bees break their envelopes " from the 

 inside ; they immediately come forth and commence 

 cleansing themselves. They seldom leave the hive 

 till four or five days old and probably commence their 

 labors soon after this event. 



PLAYING. 



Playing is a peculiarity in the habits of the bee 

 not generally understood, and as it sometimes causes 



