II 



LIFErHISTORY OF BOMBUS i 



j 



means of this arrangement the queen, sitting in her 

 groove facing the honey-pot this seems to be her 

 favourite position, though sometimes she reverses 

 it is able to sip her honey without turning her 

 body, and at the same time she is in an excellent 

 position for guarding the entrance from intruders. 



After a period of rest the larvae change to pupae, 

 heads uppermost. About the twenty-second or 

 twenty- third day after the eggs are laid the per- 

 fect worker bees are formed, and, biting a hole 

 through the tops of their cocoons, they creep out, 

 those in the cocoons in the middle of the groove, 

 which have been kept warmest, emerging a day or 

 two earlier than those at the sides. In the work of 

 biting open her cell the emerging bee is generally 

 assisted by the queen or workers, and she makes 

 several attempts to get out before the orifice is 

 large enough to permit her thorax to pass through. 



Should the weather be cold or incubation be in- 

 terrupted, the duration of all the stages of develop- 

 ment is lengthened. Insufficient feeding also delays 

 the larval stage. Thus the time occupied from the 

 laying of the egg to the emergence of the bee some- 

 times extends to a month. 



The coat of the freshly emerged bee is matted 

 and stuck down with moisture, and is of a uniformly 

 dull silvery-grey colour. Her legs are weak and 

 unsteady, and almost the first thing she does is to 

 totter to the honey -pot, where she slowly unfolds 

 her proboscis and takes a sip of the life-supporting 

 drink. Then, refreshed and strengthened, she 



