364 THE INSECT WORLD. 



but they have one bad fault : they are very fond of eating the 

 eggs laid by the mother. They try to seize them as she deposits 

 them, or drag them from the cells, and suck their contents. And 

 so the mother is obliged to be incessantly defending her eggs 

 against the voracity of the workers, and to be constantly on 

 her guard, so as to be ready to drive away these marauders from 

 cells newly filled. 



"We owe to an English naturalist, Newport, the knowledge of 

 another curious fact relating to the laying of humble bees, which 

 is the expedient the females and the males have recourse to for 

 hastening the hatching of the eggs. They place themselves, like 

 fowls sitting on their eggs, over the wax shells containing the pupae 

 almost hatched. By breathing quickly, these industrious insects 

 raise the temperature of their bodies, and consequently that of the 

 air in the cells. Thanks to this supplementary heat, the meta- 

 morphpsis of the pupae is much hastened. Newport, by slipping 

 miniature thermometers between the shells of the nymphs and the 

 sitting humble bees, ascertained that the temperature of the latter 

 was about 34 C., whilst the temperature of the shells left to 

 themselves was only 27 C. ; that of the air in the rest of the 

 nest being only from 21 to 24 C. After many hours of incuba- 

 tion, at the same time natural and artificial, in which art and 

 nature are so closely allied, after the sitting insects have many 

 times relieved one another, the young humble bees come out of 

 their shells. They are at first soft, greyish, wet, and very sus- 

 ceptible to cold. But after a few hours they become stronger, 

 and the yellow and black bands with which their abdomens are 

 surrounded begin to be marked out. The spring laying produces 

 exclusively workers. The greatest abundance of eggs are laid in 

 August and September. The laying of the female eggs begins in 

 July ; that of the males follows soon after. 



Until autumn, the humble bees are incessantly enlarging their 

 nests, and multiplying their little pots of honey. "Without accu- 

 mulating a great stock of provisions, which they would not be able 

 to dispose of, they always keep in reserve a quantity of pollen and 

 honey for their daily wants. The cells in which the honey is stored 

 differ very much in shape. Some species of humble bees give them 

 long and narrow necks ; others, less recherche in their style of con- 



