28 



THE HUMBLE-BEE 



11 



pupate. When very small they are yellowish white, 

 but this colour soon changes to white with a grey- 

 pink tinge imparted by the internal vessels and their 

 contents. 



The larvae, however, like the eggs, cannot be 

 seen, for the queen keeps them covered with wax, 

 in which they are completely enclosed as in a bag or 

 skin. 



The larvae devour the pollen which forms their 



Fig. 8. Eggs, Larvas, and Pupa; of Bomlnts terrestris, slightly enlarged. 



bed, and also fresh pollen which is added and 

 plastered on to the lump by the queen. The queen 

 also feeds them with a liquid mixture of honey and 

 pollen, which she prepares by swallowing some 

 honey and then returning it to her mouth to be 

 mixed with pollen, which she nibbles from the lump 

 and chews in her mandibles, the mixture being 

 swallowed and churned in the honey-sac. To feed 

 the larvae the queen makes a small hole with her 

 mandibles in the skin of wax that covers them, and 



