172 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1792. 



ing it down; for when brought in, it is rather a powder than a paste. That it is 

 the food of the maggot is proved by examining the animal's stomach; for when 

 we icill a maggot full grown, we find its stomach full of a similar substance, only 

 softer, as if mixed with a fluid, but we never find honey in the stomach; there- 

 fore we are to suppose it is collected as food for the maggot, as much as honey 

 is for the old bee. Mr. Schirach imagines, that the semen of the male is the 

 food of the maggot; but the food of the male and the queen maggot has been 

 supposed to be different from that of the labourers. Reaumur says, the food of 

 the queen maggot is different in taste from that of the common ones. How he 

 knew this, who was unacquainted with the food of the others, I cannot con- 

 ceive. 



Of the excrement of the maggot. — They have very little excrement, but what 

 they do discharge is deposited at the bottom of the cell; and what at first will 

 appear rather extraordinary, it is never cleared away by the bees, but allowed to 

 dry along with the maggot coats; and both fresh eggs and honey are deposited in 

 these cells, so circumstanced, every future year; so that in time the cells become 

 nearly half full. 



Of the chrysalis state. — In this state they are forming themselves for a new 

 life: they are either entirely new built, or wonderfully changed, for there is not 

 the smallest vestige of the old form remaining; yet it must be the same ma- 

 terials, for now nothing is taken in. How far this change is only the old parts 

 new modelled, or gradually altering their form, is not easily determined. To 

 bring about the change, many parts must be removed, out of which the new ones 

 are probably formed. As bees are not different in this state from the common 

 flying insects in general, I shall not pursue the subject of their changes further; 

 though it makes a very material part in the natural history of insects. 



When the chrysalis is formed into the complete bee, it then destroys the 

 covering of its cell, and comes forth. The time it continues in this state is 

 easier ascertained than either in that of the egg, or the maggot; for the bees 

 cannot move the chrysalis, as they do the two others. In one instance it was 13 

 days and 12 hours exactly; so that an egg in hatching being 5 days, the age of 

 the maggot being 4 days, and the chrysalis continuing 13i, the whole makes 

 12\ days: but how far this is accurate, I will not pretend to say. I found that 

 the chrysalis of a male was 14 days, but this was probably accidental. When 

 they first come out, they are of a greyish colour, but soon turn brown. 



When the swarm, of which I have hitherto been giving the history, has come 

 off" early, and is a large one, more especially if it was put into too small a hive, 

 it often breeds too many for the hive to keep through the winter; and in such 

 case a new swarm is thrown off", which however is commonly not a large one, 

 and generally has too little time to complete its comb, and store it with honey 



