4o THE HUMBLE-BEE 



a 



that it is freshly gathered and consumed every day, 

 while the honey in the cocoons is thick, sometimes 

 exceedingly so, showing that it is stored in these 

 for use in times of scarcity. As the larger and 

 newer cocoons become available for the storage of 

 food, the oldest ones at the bottom of the comb are 

 emptied and used no more, except in a time of 

 plenty, when all the rest are full. In underground 

 nests, where all available space is likely to be needed 

 for the expansion of the comb, the walls of these 

 abandoned cocoons are often bitten down, and the 

 comb sinks. Wasps, it is well known, enlarge their 

 nest cavity according to their requirements by dig- 

 ging out little lumps of earth and flying away with 

 them, but I have never seen humble-bees do this. 



The pollen, which is really a stiff paste of pollen 

 and honey, is never put into the same cells as the 

 honey. During the feeding of the first larvae the 

 queen deposits her pollen around the cell that 

 contains them ; here it is soon consumed, so that 

 no receptacle is needed or made for it. Later on, 

 however, as the comb grows, the pollen is placed 

 in special cells, the nature of which depends upon 

 the species. Lapidarms stores it under the brood 

 in vacated cocoons, and sometimes also in small 

 waxen cells. Terrestris and lucorum store it in one 

 or two, afterwards increased to three or four, large 

 waxen cells, which are built, sometimes singly, 

 sometimes joined together, on top of the cocoons 

 about, or not far from, the centre of the comb ; these 

 waxen cells, as the comb grows, rise like columns 



