HISTORY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 13 



becomes entirely covered with gray feather-like 

 hairs, which as the insect advances in age assume 

 a reddish hue. 



When it has reached the twenty-first day of its 

 existence, counting from the moment the egg is 

 laid, it quits the exuviae of the pupa state, comes 

 forth a perfect winged insect, and is termed an 

 imago. The cocoon or pellicle is left behind and 

 forms a closely attached and exact lining to the 

 cell in which it was spun : by this means the breed- 

 ing cells become smaller, and their partitions 

 stronger, the oftener they change their tenants ; 

 and when they have become so much diminished 

 in size, by this succession of pellicles or linings, 

 as not to admit of the perfect development of full- 

 sized bees, they are converted into receptacles for 

 honey. 



Such are the respective stages of the working 

 bee ; those of the royal bee are as follow. She 

 passes three days in the egg and is five a worm ; 

 the workers then close her cell*, and she imme- 

 diately begins spinning the cocoon, which occupies 

 her twenty-four hours. On the tenth and eleventh 

 days, as if exhausted by her labour, she remains in 



* Instead of being nearly horizontal like the other brood 

 cells, those of the queens are perpendicular and considerably 

 larger ; in form they are oblong spheroids, tapering gradu- 

 ally downwards; their mouths being always at the bottom. 

 Vide Part II. " Architecture of Bees." 



