SOCIAL ECONOMY. 235 
not the head, that projects. The preparations for 
another occupant are not very extensive. All loose 
fragments of the lining are cut off, but there is no 
regular cleansing of the cell, either by wasps or bees ; 
for, as we have seen, the number of the successive 
occupants may be reckoned by the layers of skin and 
excreta which they have left behind them, each set 
in its own lining membrane, and each perfect. The 
accumulation of these exuviee would soon prescribe 
limits to the number of times a cell may be occupied, 
but before these limits are reached the cells are 
disused. When more room is wanted for the wasps 
at home, the sides of the old cells, in the upper 
combs, are cut down, and new brood-cells are built in 
lower stages, instead of the same being used over 
and over again. Sometimes, however, it happens 
that the urgent necessities of a too-prolific queen- 
mother overrule the convenience of her subjects, 
and outrun their powers of building. Every cell or 
fragment of a cell, under such circumstances, will 
have one or more eggs deposited in it. And we 
must presume that the wasps instinctively remove 
the supernumeraries, for seldom, if ever, are two 
embryos found in one cell. 
The time occupied in the maturation of bees,* 
from the egg being laid to the first appearance of 
the perfect insect, has been determined to be about 
three weeks, more or less, according to the sex of 
the individual. The development of wasps occupies 
* See ‘Hunter’s Works.’ Vol. IV. p. 443; also ‘Wildman on 
Bees,’ p. 16, and with regard to Wasps, p. 160; and Shuckard 
British Bees,’ 1866, p. 347. 
