212 AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG. 



Wasps in the construction of their nests have solely in view the accom- 

 modation of their young ones ; and to these their cells are exclusively 

 devoted. Bees, on the contrary (I am speaking of the common hive-bee), 

 appropriate a considerable number of their cells to the reception of honey 

 intended for the use of the society. Yet the education of the young 

 brood is their chief object ; and to this they constantly sacrifice all per- 

 sonal and selfish considerations. In a new swarm the first care is to 

 build a series of cells to serve as cradles ; and little or no honey is col- 

 lected until an ample store of bee-bread, as it is called, has been laid up 

 for their food. This bee-bread is composed of the pollen of flowers, \vhich 

 the workers are incessantly employed in gathering, flying from flower to 

 flower, brushing from the stamens their yellow treasure, and collecting it 

 in the little baskets with which their hind legs are so admirably provided ; 

 then hastening to the hive, and having deposited their booty, returning for 

 a new load. The provision thus furnished by one set of labourers is care- 

 fully stored up by another, until the eggs which the queen-bee has laid, 

 and which, adhering by a glutinous covering, she places nearly upright in 

 the bottom of the cell, are hatched. With this bee-bread, after it has 

 undergone a conversion into a sort of whitish jelly by being received into 

 the bee's stomach, where it is probably mixed with honey * and regurgi- 

 tated, the young brood immediately upon their exclusion, and until their 

 change into nymphs, are diligently fed by other bees, which anxiously 

 attend upon them and several times a day afford a fresh supply. Different 

 bees are seen successively to introduce their heads into the cells containing 

 them, and after remaining in that position some moments, during which 

 they replace the expended provision, pass on to those in the neighbour- 

 hood. Others often immediately succeed, and in like manner put in their 

 heads as if to see that the young ones have everything necessary ; which 

 being ascertained by a glance, they immediately proceed, and stop only 

 when they find a cell almost exhausted of food. That the office of these 

 purveyors is no very simple affair will be admitted, when it is understood 

 that the food of all the grubs is not the same, but that it varies according 

 to their age, being insipid when they are young, and, when they have 

 nearly attained maturity, more sugary and somewhat acid. The larvae 

 destined for queen-bees, too, require a food altogether different from that 

 appropriated to those of drones and workers. It may be recognised by 

 its sharp and pungent taste. 



So accurately is the supply of food proportioned to the wants of the 

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

 become nymphs, not an atom is left unconsumed. At this period, intui- 

 tively known to their assiduous foster-parents, they terminate their cares 

 by sealing up each cell with a lid of wax, convex in those containing the 

 larvae of drones, and nearly flat in those containing the larva? of workers, 

 beneath which the enclosed tenants spin in security their cocoon. In all 

 these labours neither the queen nor the drones take the slightest share. 

 They fall exclusively upon the workers, who, constantly called upon to 

 tend fresh broods, as those brought to maturity are disposed of, devote 

 nearly the whole of their existence to these maternal offices. 



1 It is not unlikely that it may undergo some other alteration in the bee's sto- 

 mach, which may possibly secrete some peculiar substance, as John Hunter discovered 

 that the crop of the pigeon does. 



