74 STUDIES IN INSECT LIFE, ETC. 

 readily accessible store of food to the queen as 

 she passes in and out. Owing to the amount of 

 wax required, the honey-pot takes some days 

 to make, and when made it is constantly being 

 remodelled. In the morning, when it is half 

 empty, its walls are lowered, to be rebuilt and 

 the orifice narrowed at night-time when it stands 

 full. The honey itself is thin and watery, much 

 more so than the finished product of the honey- 

 bee. " Weak but palatable/' as Mr. F. found 

 the wines of France. 



Four days after they are laid the eggs hatch 

 and twelve little curved, whitish grubs emerge 

 into their waxen cell. They quickly begin to 

 feed upon their pollen bed, to which fresh pollen 

 is being added by the queen. From time to 

 time, also, she pierces the cell and at first injects 

 a common food of mixed honey and pollen ; but 

 later, when the larvae are larger, each is indi- 

 vidually and compulsorily fed. The larvae now 

 press on the enlarged waxen cell, and soon the 

 position of each can be recognised by an individual 

 bulge on the outside. In a week they are 

 full grown, and now each spins about its body 

 a thin, papery but tough cocoon. This done, 

 the queen removes the remains of the waxen cell 



