6 THE BOOK OF NATURE STUDY 



is reared become darker in colour and thicker owing to the 

 accumulation of portions of food and cast skins left behind by 

 their successive tenants, and not completely removed by the 

 workers. 



Brood. The eggs from which workers are developed are 

 fertilised, as also are those from which " queens " result ; drones, 

 however, are the product of unfertilised eggs. Workers are 

 raised in ordinary small cells, drones in somewhat larger, but 

 " queens " in very large cells projecting like thimbles from the 



B 



B 



FIG. 2. Piece of honey-comb. A, drone cells ; B, worker cells ; C, queen cells. 



surface or edges of the comb. On the third day after an egg 

 has been laid a small white larva issues from it ; for three days 

 the young larva is supplied with food which has been digested 

 in the " chyle stomach " of adult workers, and is then regur- 

 gitated for the benefit of the young. Later, worker larvae are 

 supplied with honey, drone larvae with undigested pollen, and 

 subsequently pollen in increasing quantities is supplied to both 

 sorts of larvae. " Queen " larvae, however, are given the chyle- 

 food (" royal jelly ") throughout the whole period of feeding. 



