APIS. 



ferent sizes, much less could wasps be 

 guided by the same principle, as their 

 cells are of very different sizes, and the 

 first by much too small for .the queen 

 wasp to have worked round herself : but 

 I shall consider the whole as an instinctive 

 principle, in which the animal has no pow- 

 er of variation or choice, but such as 

 arises from what may !>e called external 

 necessity. The cell has in common six 

 sides, but this is most correct in those 

 first formed ; and the bottom is commonly 

 composed of those sides or planes, two of 

 the sides making one ; and they generally 

 fall in between the bottoms of three cells 

 of the opposite side ; but this is not regu- 

 lar, it is only to be found where there 

 is no external interruption. 



" As soon as a few combs are formed, 

 the female bee begins laying of eggs. As 

 far as I have been able to observe, the 

 queen is the only bee that propagates, al- 

 though it is asserted that the labourers 

 do. Her first eggs in the season are those 

 which produce labourers ; then the males, 

 and probably the queen ; this is the pro- 

 gress in the wasp, hornet, humble-bee, 

 &c. However, it is asserted by Riem, that 

 when a hive is deprived of a queen, la- 

 bourers lay eggs ; also, that at this time 

 some honey and farina are brought in, as 

 store for a wet day. The eggs are laid at 

 the bottom of the cell, and we find them 

 there before the cells are half completed, 

 so that propagation begins early, and goes 

 on along with the formation of the other 

 cells. The egg is attached at one end to 

 the bottom of the cell, sometimes stand- 

 ing perpendicularly, often obliquely ; it 

 has a glutinous or slimy covering, which 

 makes it stick to any thing it touches. It 

 would appear that there was a period or 

 periods for laying eggs; for I have ob- 

 served in a new swarm, that the great bu- 

 siness of lay ing eggs did not last above a 

 fortnight ; although the hive was not half 

 filled with comb, it began to slacken In 

 those new formed combs, as also in many 

 not half finished, we find the substance 

 called bee-bread, and some of it is cover- 

 ed over with wax, which will be consider- 

 ed further. By the time they have work- 

 ed above half way down the hive with the 

 comb, they are beginning to form for the 

 larger cells, and by this time the first 

 broods were hatched, which were small, 

 or labourers : and now they begin to 

 breed males, and probably a queen, for a 

 new swarm ; because the males are now 

 bred to impregnate the young queen for 

 the present summer, as also for the next 

 year. This progress in breeding is the 



same with that of the wasp, hornet, and 

 humble-bee. Although this account is 

 commonly allowed, yet writers on this 

 subject have supposed another mode of 

 producing a queen, when the hive is in 

 possession of maggots, and deprived of 

 their queen. 



" What may be called the complete 

 process of the egg, namely, from the 

 time of laying to the birth of the bee, 

 (that is, the time of hatching) the life of 

 the maggot, and the life of the crysalis, 

 is, I believe, shorter than in most insects. 

 It is not easy to fix the time when the 

 eggs hatch : I have been led to imagine 

 it was in five days. When they hatch, we 

 find the young maggot lying coiled up in 

 the bottom of the cell, in some degree 

 surrounded with a transparent fluid. In 

 many of the cells, where the eggs have 

 just hatched, we find the skin standing in 

 its place, either not yet removed, or not 

 pressed down by the maggot. There is 

 now an additional employment for the la- 

 bourers, namely, the feeding and nursing 

 the young maggots. We may suppose 

 the queen has nothing to do with this, as 

 there are at all times labourers enough in 

 the hive forsuch purposes, especially, too, 

 as she never does bring the materials, as 

 every other of the tribe is obliged to do 

 at first ; therefore she seems to be a 

 queen by hereditary, or rather by natural, 

 right, while the humble-bee, wasp, hor- 

 net, &c. seem rather to work themselves 

 into royalty, or mistresses of the commu- 

 nity. The bees are readily detected feed- 

 ing the young maggot ; and, indeed, a 

 young maggot might easily be brought up 

 by any person who would be attentive to 

 it. They open their two lateral pincers 

 to receive the food and swallow it. As 

 they grow, they cast their coats or cuti- 

 cles ; but how often they throw their 

 coats, while in the maggot state, I do not 

 know. The maggots grow larger and 

 larger till they nearly fill the cell ; and by 

 this time they require no more food, and 

 are ready to be inclosed for the crysalis 

 state ; when ready for the crysalis state, 

 the bees cover over the mouth of the cell 

 with a substance of a light brown colour, 

 much in the same manner that they cover 

 the honey, excepting that, in the present 

 instance, the covering is convex exter- 

 nally, and appears not to be entirely wax, 

 but a mixture of wax and farina. The 

 maggot is now perfectly inclosed, and it 

 begins to line the cell and covering of the 

 mouth above-mentioned with a silk it spins 

 out, similar to the silk-worm, and which 

 makes a kind of pod for the crysalis. 



