Social Bees and Wasps 



veritable giant cell around one of the fertilised eggs. Some- 

 times several of these cells are constructed. The larva 

 which hatches from the favoured egg is the subject of 

 special treatment by the nurse workers. No common food 

 will suffice for its needs, nectar and pollen are taboo, and 

 throughout its existence it is fed on "bee jelly." After 

 five days the larva can fend for itself, so a store of the jelly 

 is placed beside it and the cell, which by this time has 

 been fashioned roughly to the shape of a filbert, is capped. 

 In a week the fully developed bee eats its way out of the 

 cell, after having intimated that it is about to do so by 

 curious squeaks which are answered by the old queen. 

 After so much care and attention, it is only fitting that 

 something out of the ordinary should come into the bee 

 world, and this is so, for the new arrival is a queen. 



It is well to pause here to consider exactly what has 

 happened. Many naturalists own that the surroundings 

 of an animal during its development have an enormous 

 influence on its future, and they draw no small comfort 

 from the case of the bee. The larva from a fertilised egg, 

 laid in a small cell by the queen bee, fed at first on bee 

 jelly, then on nectar and honey, develops into a worker ; 

 but the grub from the same egg, if laid in a large cell and 

 fed solely on " bee jelly," turns into a queen. Seeing that 

 the queen and worker bee differ very widely in structure 

 and in habit, the phenomenon is certainly remarkable. 



Now there is a law in the bee world which brooks no 

 transgression, to the effect that one hive must harbour but 

 one queen, so the advent of the new queen means trouble, 

 and the trouble is not always of the same kind. Some- 

 times the rival queens will fight to the death ; the only 

 occasion, so it is said, on which the queen bee uses her 

 sting. At other times the workers settle the question 

 among themselves and, gathering in a compact mass 

 round the queen they have decided to destroy, they 

 suffocate or " ball " her. The happiest, and a frequent 

 manner of settling the question is for each of the queens 



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