78 STUDIES IN INSECT LIFE, ETC. 

 accident, a larva leave its waxen home prema- 

 turely, it is at once removed from the nest and 

 perishes. 



When fully established the workers cease to 

 make use of the queen's honey-pot, which falls 

 into decay, but they store their honey in the 

 cocoons they have vacated, strengthening the 

 rims with wax. But in some species the workers 

 construct special honey-pots of their own, smaller 

 than the original one, but at times quite numer- 

 ous twenty or more. The latter contain a thin 

 and watery syrup which is daily consumed, but in 

 the cocoons a thicker honey is stored against a 

 period of want, or as a provision for the young 

 queens. As we have seen, the first pollen col- 

 lected by the queen is placed within reach of the 

 hungry larvae, but there is no special receptacle 

 for it. Later special receptacles are made for its 

 storage, and these differ in different species. 

 B. lapidarius hoards pollen in cocoons, B. tenestris 

 and B. lucorum in a few specially constructed 

 waxen cells, while the " carder-bees " stock their 

 exiguous store in little pockets on the side of the 

 waxen homes of the larvae. In no case are honey 

 and pollen mixed in the same receptacle, and, as 

 with the honey-bee, the humble-bee trusts its 



