AUSTRALASIAN BEE MANUAL 



21 



view of a number of worker cells, with the egg and 

 larva in the different stages of development up to the 

 time of capping the cells (in the line marked a) ; a 

 section of a queen cell (b) showing the larva and a 

 supply of the royal jelly, and a similar one completed 

 and closed (at c). They somewhat resemble a peanut 

 in shape. 



The material of which these cells are composed is 

 not pure wax ; there is much pollen mixed with it. 

 The outside surface is uneven and indented like the 

 sides of a thimble. The number built at one time 

 varies much, according to circumstances — sometimes 

 only two or three, but ordinarily not less than five or 

 more. 



^'^S- 9- QUEEN CELLS BUILT OVER WORKER CELLS. 



The transformations of the queen larva are com- 

 pleted in seven days from the closing of the cell, so 

 that on the sixteenth day from the laying of the egg 

 (six days shorter than the period for the worker, and 

 nine days shorter than that for the drone) the fully 

 developed queen emerges from the cell. 



In the case of a colony becoming queenless in an 

 abnormal manner, queen cells may be built over worker 

 eggs or larvae in convenient places on the flat surface 

 of a comb as shown in Fig. 9. The ordinary worker 

 cells, with eggs in them, are shown at a ; b is a queen 



