BEE. 



the workers, whose office it was to lay male eg-gs in 

 old hives. As, however, this is so contrary to the 

 known proceedings of the real queen, it is perhaps to 

 be considered more probable that those fertile insects, 

 which are smaller and more slender than the common 

 workers, may be common workers which have derived 

 their fertility from the circumstance of some royaljelly 

 having been casually dropt into their cells when 

 grubs as they uniformly issue from cells adjoining 

 those inhabited by grubs that have been raised from 

 the plebeian to the royal rank; of course, therefore, 

 they are never found in any hives which have had the 

 misfortune to lose their queen. 



The duration of the life of the different individuals 

 of the hive is various. Without recurring to the 

 fabulous accounts of the old naturalists, who thought 

 that bees lived as long as the hive lasted, were it never 

 so lonsr, it is to be observed, that a male bee's existence 

 is not more than two or three months. The female 

 has been known to live five years, although the 

 general term of her existence is more probably from 

 two to three years; and the workers, from the obser- 

 vations of naturalists, do not appear to be so long-lived 

 as the queen, probably little longer than a year being 

 the term of life. 



Thus have we, in a connected form, laid before the 

 reader the " birth, parentage and education, life, cha- 

 racter and behaviour" of the honey-bee. The numer- 

 ous experiments which have been performed upon 

 these insects, although possessing the greatest interest, 

 scarcely seem to fall within the limits of a moderately 

 long article in a work like the present ; recourse 

 must therefore be had for them to the Memoirs of 

 M. Hubcr, to the Introduction to Entomology of 

 Messrs. Kirby and Spence, and to the intelligent 

 volume recently published by Dr. Bevan. 



We shall conclude this article by a more detailed 

 account of the structure of the larva and pupa of the 

 her, and of two organs of the perfect insect, which 

 cannot but be regarded with peculiar interest, namely, 

 the tongue and the sting- 



Bee gruhs natural size and magnified. 



The larva of the bee is a soft fleshy grub, with a 

 wrinkled skin, and i? generally to be observed in an 

 arched position in the cell. .Swammerdam, who dis- 

 sected these grubs very minutely, states that they are 

 composed of fourteen annular incisions, including the 

 head ; his figures, however, exhibit only thirteen, 

 which number is found in all other insects, one 

 segment being occupied by the head, three by the 

 thorax, and nine by the abdomen of the perfect insect, 

 although in the latter some of the segments of the 

 abdomen of the larva become obsolete, forming, in 

 fact, the organs of generation. The head comprises 

 the eyes, which are transparent and white, resembling 

 the ocelli of other insects, a small transverse upper 

 lip, two small organs placed at the anterior angles of 

 the head, which Swammerdam conceives afterwards 

 become the antenna*, and two " little parts, situated 

 under he former, which seem as if they were articu- 

 lated and afterwards grow into teeth. Moreover 



between these two little parts, and consequently under 

 the lip, is presented to view another small and some- 

 what prominent part, which resembles a trunk or 

 tongue, and this increasing by degrees at length 

 indeed constitutes the trunk of the bee ; moreover 

 there is something that hangs out of this little part 

 above like a small nipple, by which the worm dis- 

 charges its thread to make the web when it has 

 eaten for a sufficient time, and is going to be trans- 

 formed into a nymph. In some other worms 1 have 

 seen, besides the tongue, the resemblance of a small 

 and tubular proboscis, situate in the middle, between 

 the tongue and the lip, by the help of which the 

 worm can probably take in its meat. Again, in other 

 such worms, I observed a horny or bony little part 

 immediately under the lip." Their colour, however, 

 which is whitish, prevents their being accurately 

 viewed together. 



Bee's muuth. 



From a careful examination of the structure of the 

 mouth of the grubs of other bees, it appears that 

 the two side organs, or " little parts which seem 

 as if they were articulated," do not correspond 

 with the " teeth" or jaws of the perfect bee, but with 

 the sheaths of the tongue or maxillae, whilst the 

 former organs are represented in the grub by a pair 

 of horny acute teeth, which Swammerdam has over- 

 looked, if indeed they be not what he has noticed & 

 " a horny or bony little part, immediately under the 

 lip." The body is furnished on each side with ten 

 minute circular spiracles, or breathing pores, a pair 

 being placed on each segment of the body, with the 

 exception of that which immediately follows the head, 

 and the terminal one which bears the anus. The 

 worm being unfurnished with leg's, has a very slow 

 motion, and whenever it is disturbed, it merely 

 draws its head and tail, or the posterior part of the 

 body inward ; when more roughly handled, how- 

 ever, it sometimes twists and bends itself forwards, 

 and sometimes backwards : hut if it be not dis- 

 turbed it lies in it* cell without motion. Although it 

 increases rapidly in bulk, it has not been ascertained 

 that it sheds its skin as the caterpillars of moths 

 do, except when on the point of becoming a nymph, 

 at which period the pulmonary tubes also change 

 their skin and throw out, through the orifices of the 

 body, a thin pellicle. Previous to shedding its skin, 

 the first three segments of the bod}' begin to swell, 

 since it is to these segments that the locomotive 

 organs in the perfect insect are attached. At length 

 the skin of the grub splits along the back, and the 

 skull is divided into three pieces, whereupon the 

 pupa is seen within, which, in a short time, dis- 



