II 



46 THE HUMBLE-BEE 



Succeeding batches of workers emerge in due 

 time and the population of the colony grows rapidly, 

 a few fresh workers emerging every day : these 

 workers are still larger than the earlier ones, and 

 they are very capable and energetic. 



Every active moment in the worker's life, which 

 lasts about four weeks, is employed in furthering the 

 prosperity of the colony. Even before her full 

 colours have appeared she begins to nurse her baby 

 sisters, spreading her body over them and feeding 

 them. The adult worker spends the greater part of 

 the day journeying to and from the flowers, and she 

 seldom returns home without her abdomen distended 

 with honey, and the tibia of each of her hind legs 

 bearing a large pellet of pollen. 



It is interesting to watch the worker put away 

 her load. After entering the nest she runs about, 

 feeling and smelling with her antennae, in search of 

 cells to receive it. Having discovered a receptacle 

 containing pollen, she takes a step forward so as to 

 bring her hind legs exactly over the mouth of it, and 

 rubbing them together, she detaches the two pellets, 

 which drop into the cell. Then she may turn 

 round and, putting her head into the cell, may spread 

 and plaster down the pollen with her mandibles, but 

 often she leaves this to be done by another worker. 

 Hastening to a cell containing honey she buries her 

 head in it, and her abdomen is seen to contract as 

 she regurgitates the honey. Next minute she is out 

 and away to collect another load. 



She does not always drop her pellets of pollen at 



