HYMENOPTERA. 3 3 1 



honey, and to become even slightly acid. It seems, then, that the 

 bees know how to graduate the food of their larvae in such a manner 

 as to bring it nearer by degrees to honey (Fig. 321). 



In the space of live days the larvae are developed ; they have 

 absorbed all their pap, and have no need from that time of any 

 nourishment, for they are about now to change into pupae. Now the 

 nurses pay them a last attention. They wall them 

 up in their cells, closing the openings with a waxen 

 covering. The larvae then get close to the wax 

 covering. In thirty-six hours they have spun for 

 themselves a silky cocoon, in which they undergo 

 their transformation into pupae. The moult, which Larfi^V the'Bee 

 precedes their metamorphosis, constitutes a crisis, as (magnified), 

 with the caterpillars of Lepidoptera. 



The perfect insect is hatched seven or eight days after its trans- 

 formation into a pupa, the organs being developed little by little, and 

 the young bee is then ready to appear in the broad daylight. It 

 breaks through the thin transparent covering in which it is still 

 swathed ; then, with its mandibles, it pierces the operculum, or door 

 of its prison, and opens a way for itself by which it can issue forth. 

 With the assistance of its front legs it clings to the rim of the cell, 

 and draws itself forward, till it has set free the whole of its body. 

 The other bees lavish upon this newly-arrived little stranger all pos- 

 sible attention, to make its entrance into the world easy and agreeable; 

 assisting and supporting it till it has become quite strong. It very 

 soon becomes strong. If it is a working bee, it is not long in getting 

 to work and in mixing with its companions in labour. 



This is the way in which the hatching of ordinary bees takes place, 

 workers and males ; the first, twenty days after they are laid ; the 

 second, twenty-four days after. The rearing and birth of the young 

 queens are slightly different. In proportion as the larvae increase in 

 size do the workers enlarge the cells which contain them ; and then 

 again gradually diminish their size as the moment of their last meta- 

 morphosis approaches. A special and peculiar food is given to the 

 larvce of the queens ; it is quite different from that vhich is given to 

 the larvae of the working bees, being a heavier and sweeter substance. 

 This special food seems to exercise such an energetic influence on the 

 development of the ovaries, that simple workers which have acci- 

 dentally received any of it, during their larval state, become pregnant 

 and lay a few eggs. But this anomalous development remains im- 

 perfect, because the prolific food was only administered in a small 

 quantity. Besides which, the size of the cells is of great importance 



