42 



THE HUMBLE-BEE 



ii 



This difference is really an important one, for 

 the placing of pollen in contact with the brood 

 is a vestige of the method of feeding employed by 

 the solitary bees, which lay their eggs on lumps of 

 pollen that they have collected, the larvae feeding 

 themselves on the pollen ; and I have no doubt that 



Fig. 14. Comb of B. agrorum, showing pollen-pockets in the sides of 



the bunches of larvae. 



the larvae of the pocket-makers do partly feed on 

 the pollen placed in the pockets, at least during the 

 earlier stages of their growth. It is only the pollen- 

 storers that, after the first batch has been reared, 

 quite abandon supplying their young with solid 

 pollen, and completely adopt the honey-bees' more 

 advanced method of feeding with liquid food pre- 

 pared in the body of the bee. 



