THE BEE. 



108. When a young bee, after its final metamorphosis, has issued 

 from the cell, the nurses crowd round it, carefully brushing it, 

 giving it nourishment and showing it the way through the hive. 

 Others meanwhile are occupied in cleaning the cell from which 

 it has issued and putting it in order to receive another egg if it 

 be still large enough, and if not, to receive a store of honey. 



The young bee is not sufficiently strong to fly on the first day.. 

 It is only. on the morrow, after being well fed and brushed down 

 by the nurses, and having taken a walk from time to time through 

 the combs, that it ventures on the wing. 



109. The drone passes three days in the egg, and continues to 

 receive the care of the nurses as a grub until the tenth day, when it 

 passes into the state of nymph, and is sealed up in its cell by the 



. - - 



** 



. tfte. 



* 



'-.' ' ^f 1 . ' j l -"W* : '^K'. *^VV -^P' 



nurses with a very convex cover. As already stated, the drone 

 grub being larger than that of the worker, the cell assigned to it 

 is proportionately more capacious, and the cover by which as a 

 nymph it is shut up is much more convex externally. A piece of 

 comb consisting of drone cells is shown in fig. 47. 



Some cells, o, o, o, being those from which the perfect insect 

 has issued, are open and empty. 



Near the borders of the comb, where local circumstances render 

 it necessary to modify the principles of its architecture so as to 

 accommodate the' cells to their position in the hive, may be 

 52 



