THE HONEY-BEE 51 



class that larva will develop into a queen-bee ; 

 if continuously given to a drone-larva, the result- 

 ant drone will be of an enormous and monstrous 

 growth, but its testes will suffer a fatty degenera- 

 tion and disappear. 



After five and a half days the queen-larvae, 

 and after six days the drone and worker-larvae, 

 cease to feed. The worker-bees now close with 

 a convex cap the cell which shelters the larva, 

 and the entombed " infant " proceeds to secrete 

 from its salivary glands a cocoon-case which fills 

 the cell, except in the case of a royal-cell where 

 the cocoon occupies about one-third of the 

 space. Within this the larva becomes first a 

 " pronymph " and then a true pupa in which 

 the body of the adult bee is being rebuilt from 

 the disintegrated larval tissues. On the " allotted 

 day/' when the chitinous cuirass of the adult 

 has to some extent hardened, the young bee 

 is ready to leave her cell and commences to 

 gnaw through the waxen cover of the cell, a task 

 in which she is helped by numerous workers 

 outside. Soon the way is cleared and she staggers 

 forth into the darkness, heat, and bustle of the 

 hive. Attendant workers wait upon her, arrange 

 her dishevelled hairs, clean her, and offer her 



