APIS MELLIFICA. 



ments of the trunk, to which the locomotive organs of the per- 

 fect insect are attached, begin to be enlarged, the last larva- 

 skin splits along the back, and is pushed off from the head 

 backwards and deposited at the bottom of the cell, and it then 

 becomes a chrysalis. Now the wonderful changes take place, 

 partly by a formation of new organs, partly by the develop- 

 ment of preexisting ones, which end at last in the completion 

 of the perfect bee. 



Mr. Hunter ascertained the duration of the pupa state of the 

 bee to be in one instance thirteen days and twelve hours, ex- 

 actly, making the period of immature life, from the first deposi- 

 tion of the egg, to be twenty-two days and a half, a re- 

 markably brief time for the completion of the metamorphoses, 

 as compared with that in which the corresponding changes 

 are effected in other metabolian insects. When the bee first 

 comes forth, it is of a grayish color, but soon assumes the or- 

 dinary brown tint. 



When the season of oviposition and the rearing of the 

 larvae is over, then the business of collecting honey seriously 

 begins ; and when the last chrysalis of the season has disclosed 

 its image, the deserted cell is immediately filled with honey, 

 and covered over with wax, to serve as a store for winter. 



In the month of August it is supposed that the prolific fe- 

 male, which is to produce the swarms of the following year, 

 is impregnated. This act takes place in the air. The queen, 

 being preceded by the drones, traverses the exterior of the 

 hive, and suddenly rises aloft in the air, wheeling upwards 

 in large circles until she is out of sight. The male, unable to 

 extricate the intromitted parts, generally perishes. The rest 

 of this unhappy sex share a similar fate, and meet a violent 

 death from the jaws of the unprolific females. It would seem 

 as if the drones were conscious of their danger at this season, 

 for they do not loiter as usual at the mouth of the hive, but 

 hurry in or out. However, they are attacked by one, two, or 

 three workers at a time, who do not sting them, as Huber as- 

 serts, but pinch them and pull them about as if to wear them 

 out. From this instinctive and indiscriminate slaughter of the 

 males it may be inferred that the impregnation of the queen 

 has taken place before the setting in of the winter season, 

 and that the ova, the development of which is retarded dur- 

 ing the indolent state in which bees pass through the cold 

 months, are in a condition to be developed and produce the 



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