METAMORPHOSES. 



is clothed with a harder coating, with dark brown scales, fringed 

 with light hairs. Six annular segments are distinguished on its 

 abdomen, which are inserted one into another like the joints of a 

 telescope tube, and give the insect the power of elongating and 

 contracting itself within certain limits. The breast is also 

 invested with a sort of brush of grey feathery hairs, which as age 

 advances assume a reddish hue. In about twelve days all the 

 parts of the body of the perfect insect are developed, and can be 

 seen through the semi-transparent robe in which it is clethed. 



About the twenty-first day, counting from that on which the 

 egg was laid, the second metamorphosis is complete, and the 

 perfect insect, gnawing through the cover of its 

 cell, issues into life, leaving behind it the silken Fi - 45 - 



robe which it wore in the intermediate state of ^^^^^^ 

 nymph. This is closely attached to the inner &| ^jp 

 surface of the cell in which it was woven, and 

 forms a permanent lining of it. By this cause p upa of a worker, 

 the breeding cells become smaller and smaller, 

 as the eggs are successively hatched in them, until at length 

 their capacity becomes too limited for the full development of the 

 nymphs. They are then turned into store rooms for honey. 



107. In fig. 46 is represented apiece of comb, consisting exclu- 

 sively of workers' cells, in different states. Several, c, c, c, &c., are 

 closed, the nymph not having yet undergone its final metamorphosis. 

 A bee having arrived at the perfect state and gnawed open, the 



Fig. 46. 



cover of its cell, is shown at m. The cells, h, h, have their 

 openings on the opposite side of the comb, and g, g, g^ are cells 

 from which the perfect insects have already issued. 



E 2 51 



