THE HYMENOPTERA 365 



The queen lays her eggs on the bottoms of the cells selected for the 

 raising of brood, one egg in the bottom of each cell. The eggs hatch into 

 stout, white, maggot-like larvae (Fig. 385) which are fed by the worker 

 bees with a material generally called "bee bread" which appears to be 

 pollen mixed with some honey. When the larvae are full-grown and ready 

 to pupate the workers cap over with wax the openings of the cells occu- 

 pied by such larvae and these proceed to pupate (Fig. 385). After the 

 changes undergone during pupation have been completed the adult thus 

 produced bites away the cap closing the cell it is in and emerges as the 

 adult. 



CO 



FIG. 385. Section of comb of Honey Bee: FL, feeding larva in the bottom of its cell; 

 SL, larva ready to pupate, spinning its cocoon; N, pupa; an, antenna; ce, compound eye; 

 co, cocoon; e, excrement; ex, exuvium; m, mandible; sp, spiracle; t, tongue; w, wing. (After 

 Cheshire.) 



In the case of eggs which are to become drones (males) the cells in 

 which such eggs are laid are apparently of a slightly greater diameter than 

 those where workers are to be produced, though this is denied by some 

 students of the subject, and they are longer, projecting out beyond the 

 line of the general surface of the brood cells, at least after being capped, so 

 that they are easily recognized. 



The queen is fertilized but once, at which time the sperms of the drone 

 are stored in the seminal receptacle of the queen. She lays both fertilized 

 and unfertilized eggs, the latter producing the drones. By the Dzierzon 

 theory, whether the egg is to be fertilized or not depends upon the will of 

 the queen. If the cell in which the egg is to be laid is a worker cell, at the 

 moment the egg passes down the oviduct by the opening of the seminal 

 receptacle the muscles surrounding the receptacle are slightly contracted 

 and sperms are expelled, one of which fertilizes the egg, while if the egg 

 is deposited in a drone cell the muscles are not contracted and the egg is 

 unfertilized and produces a drone. While this is the more generally 

 accepted theory, the alternative view is held by some persons that the 

 smaller diameter of the worker cell produces pressure on the abdomen 

 of the queen which forces some of the sperms out, and that in case of 

 drone cells their greater diameter prevents this. 



Queens are produced only during the late spring and summer months 

 when swarming is desired. At such times the workers select a cell already 



