The Zoologist— August, 1870. 2263 



works on bee-manageinent have not given even seven years. My own observa- 

 tions confirm the Report made to this Society on the duration of life in the 

 queen, drone, and worker of the honey-bee, by Mr. J. G. Desbrough, who has 

 given some excellent calculations and facts ; and the following results have been 

 arrived at since the introduction into this country of the Ligurian bee. In 

 October, having got together two swarms of the brown bee, the queen was 

 removed, and a Ligurian yellow queen was introduced ; she remained, and 

 raised the stock in May, when every bee was a true Ligurian. Again, this 

 Ligurian stock being strengthened in October with other Ligurian workers, a 

 brown queen was introduced from another apiary ; in May, every bee was found 

 to be of the true home-bred brown form. This settled the question of the age 

 of the workers, taking the winter half of the bee-season. Having raised and 

 saved a hive filled with drones, and allowing them to exist in the stock by 

 destroying the impregnated queen and by keeping the bees employed in 

 attempting to raise queens, October found the drones hatched and located in 

 the hive ; but to prevent their slaughter, the queen was removed, when the 

 drones Hved, and perished almost the last in the stock in the month of January. 

 With regard to the queen, the exhaustion of the two ovaries constitutes in my 

 opinion the hfe of the queen, which would only extend to the second season of 

 egg-laying, provided the queen were left in her normal condition, free to go 

 and come into her hive, in a mild and equable climate, and amidst an 

 abundant harvest of honey and pollen for the workers to collect and feed the 

 larvae. 



" I turn now to the question. How are the larvse fed, and wherein is the 

 feeding different for the queen-bee ? Take the worker first in order : the egg, 

 having been attached on one of the rhombs at the base of the hexagonal cell, 

 hatches after three days, and even six or longer, according to the season; the 

 small white maggot exhibits no trace of external organs or members, but on 

 closer examination by the lens, shows a very imperfect oral apparatus or mouth, 

 for the reception of food as has been commonly stated by all writers ; through 

 this imperfect apparatus the workers are supposed to feed the larvse. Prof. 

 Westwood informs me the mouth is quite perfect when the larva is full-grown, 

 and on the lower lip a pair of spinnerets may be found, with which it spins its 

 cocoon preparatory to becoming a pupa. Moreover there is no anal orifice, as 

 no food passes through the stomach until just before the final change to the 

 pupa. Why then should not the first stage of the larval existence be maintained 

 and increased by endosmosis or absorption ? The larvae are not fed whilst in 

 the cells, but are constantly lubricated with honey and water ; the larva has no 

 motion, nor can any impulse be given it by the application of turpentine or the 

 prick of a needle ; it is simply a sack, with markings of a mouth, with the body 

 divided into thirteen or fourteen rings, along the sides of which may be seen the 

 ten spiracles or breathing holes, or perhaps in this stage glands as well, to 

 convey more perfectly the nourishment, and form the ganglia of the perfect bee. 



