Social Bees and Wasps 



moulded by the mouth parts of the worker, which are so 

 modified as to form miniature trowels, till the well-known 

 six-sided cells are formed. 



Honey is so frequently sold in combs for the table that 

 it is hardly necessary to add that these cells are always 

 built in a double layer, back to back, a common wall 

 separating the two layers, whilst the open end of each cell 

 is tilted upwards, ever so slightly, to prevent the honey 

 from flowing out. Honey is stored in cells made of new 

 wax ; for the brood cells, which we shall mention presently, 

 old wax is used, or even wax mixed with pollen. Bees 

 are exceedingly economical of their wax, and damaged or 

 unwanted cells are pulled to pieces for the sake of their 

 material, which is used in making other cells. 



With the completion of the cells the queen, who has 

 already been mated with one of the drones, begins her 

 activities. Selecting certain of the cells, she lays a single 

 fertile egg in the bottom of each one. The other cells are 

 filled by the workers with food in the form of nectar, sipped 

 from flowers and pollen. After three days the eggs 

 deposited by the queen hatch ; a tiny, white, soft-bodied, 

 helpless grub or larva comes from each egg. Their advent 

 is the signal for the nurse workers to bestir themselves, 

 for the grubs are quite unable to feed on their own account. 

 For the first two days their food consists of nourishing 

 "bee jelly," a substance which the nurse workers have 

 already partially digested in their own bodies, pending 

 the time when they regurgitate it to feed their charges 

 from their own mouths. This food is literally pumped 

 into the cells, so that the larvae are actually bathed in it, 

 and probably a good deal of the food is absorbed through 

 their skins. 



Another three days must needs elapse before the nurses 

 have done their duty to their charges. During this time 

 the fare is modified and no longer consists solely of " bee 

 jelly," but also of nectar and pollen, taken from the 

 adjoining cells. After its five days of special diet the 



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