ORGANS OF THE BEE. 



called nurses, who attend them with all the solicitude implied by 

 their title, renewing the pap several times a day, as fast as it is 

 consumed. 



The curious observer will see, from time to time, different 

 nurses introduce their heads into the cells containing the young. 

 If they see that the stock of pap is not exhausted, they imme- 

 diately withdraw and pass on to other cells ; but if they find, on 

 the contrary, the provision consumed, they never fail to deposit a 

 fresh supply. These nurses go their rounds all day long in rapid 

 succession thus surveying the cradles, and never stopping except 

 where they find the supply of food nearly exhausted. 



92. That the duty of these tender nurses is one which requires 

 the exertion of some skill will be understood, when it is stated 

 that the quality of food suitable to the young varies with their age. 

 When they first emerge from the egg the jelly must be thin and 

 insipid, and, according as they approach to maturity, it requires 

 to be more strongly impregnated with the saccharine and acid 

 principles. 



Not only does the food of the larva thus require to be varied 

 according to its age, but the food to be supplied to different larvae 

 is altogether different. The jelly destined for the larvae which 

 are to become queens, is totally different from that prepared for 

 those of drones and workers, being easily distinguished by its 

 sharp and pungent flavour ; and it is probable, also, that the jelly 

 appropriated to the drones differs from that upon which the 

 workers are reared. 



These insects, moreover, exhibit as much economy as skill; 

 the quantity of food provided being as accurately proportioned to 

 the wants of the young as its quality is to their varying functions. 

 So accurately is the supply proportioned to the wants of the larvse, 

 that, when they have attained their full growth and are about to 

 undergo their final metamorphosis into nymphs, not an atom of 

 bee-bread is left unconsumed. 



93. At the epoch of this metamorphosis, when the nymph needs 

 seclusion to spin its cocoon, and has no further occasion for food, 

 these tender nurses, with admirable foresight, terminate their cares 

 by sealing up each cell, enclosing the nymph with a woven lid. 



In all the maternal cares described above, neither the drones nor 

 the queen participate. These duties fall exclusively upon the 

 workers, and are divided between them, as has been explained, the 

 task of collecting the bee-bread being appropriated to one set, and 

 that of feeding and tending the young to another. This duty has no 

 cessation ; as the queen lays her eggs successively and constantly, 

 the young arrive successively at the epoch of their first metamor- 

 phosis ; and, consequently, so soon as some are sealed up and 



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