GENERAL HISTORY OP BEES. 19 



Before the egg is placed within its nidus, this is sup- 

 plied with the requisite quantity of food needful for the 

 support of the young to the full period of its maturity. 

 The receptacle is then closed, and the same process is 

 repeated again and again until the parent has laid her 

 whole store of eggs. In other cases one tube, p\ 

 or its ramification, contains but one egg. These 

 eggs are usually oblong, slightly curved, and ta- 

 pering at one extremity ; they vary in size ac- Fi ^ 

 cording to the species, but are never, however, The Egg. 

 above a line in length, and sometimes they are very 

 minute. When the stock of the mother bee is exhausted 

 she leaves them to the careful nursing of nature, and the 

 young is speedily evolved. She then wanders forth; 

 time has brought senility ; her occupation has gone ; 

 and she passes away; but her progeny survive to per- 

 petuate the continual chain of existence. 



The Larva. The temperature of the perforated tube 

 wherein the egg is deposited must necessarily be higher 

 and more equal than that of the external atmosphere, 

 being secluded from its vicissitudes. The egg is soon 

 hatched, and the larva emerges from its shell to feed 

 ravenously upon the sustenance stored up for its supply. 

 This consists of an admixture of pollen and honey formed 

 into a paste, the quantities varying according to the 

 size of the species. By some species it is formed into 

 little balls ; by others, it is heaped irregularly at the 

 bottom of the cell. In the case of Andrena the quan- 

 tity stored is of about the size of a pea. That it must 

 be exceeding nutritious may be inferred from its very 

 nature, consisting, as it does, of the virile, energetic, 

 and fertilizing powder of plants, the concentration of 

 their living principle. It is strictly analogous to the 



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