AUSTRALASIAN BEE MANUAL 19 



It appears covered with a sort of delicate network, 

 which is, in fact, its shell, and it has a yolk and sur- 

 rounding white, or albumen, like all eggs of birds or 

 reptiles. When deposited in a worker cell, it remains 

 unchanged in outward appearance for three days, when 

 the larva first appears as a minute worm, and goes 

 through the stages of development shown in the fol- 

 lowing figure ; the numbers underneath denoting the 

 age, in days, from the laying of the egg. 



Fie 



-FROM THE EGG TO THE BEE. 



The larva, when it emerges from the egg, is fed 

 by the workers, which act as nurses, with a mixture 

 of bee-bread, honey and water, the two first-mentioned 

 materials having undergone a partial digestion in the 

 stomach of the bees, and been converted into a species 

 of chyle. Whether the water is mixed with the food 

 so prepared, or is required for the process of digestion 

 to prepare it, certain it is that during the breeding time 

 great numbers of bees are to be seen imbibing water, 

 and bringing it to the hive. Ihis process of feeding 

 the larvae continues five days for the workers and six 

 and a half days for the drones, and the cells are then 

 capped with a mixture of wax and pollen, which forms 

 a safe covering for the cells, but is sufficiently porous 

 to admit the air necessary for the life of the larva and 

 pupa, or nymph, during its period of metamorphosis. 

 As soon as the cell is closed, the grub begins to spin a 

 web or cocoon round itself ; this spinning goes on for 

 thirty-six hours, when the cocoon is complete, and then 

 ensues a period of rest, or apparent rest, and subse- 



