400 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



a circumstance most probably occasioned by a singular difference in the 

 structure and dimensions of this envelop, which I'shall explain to you 

 presently. Thus you see that the peculiar circumstances which change 

 the form and functions of a bee accelerate its appearance as a perfect 

 insect ; and that by choosing a grub three days old, when the bees want 

 a queen, they actually gain six days ; for in this case she is ready to come 

 forth in ten days, instead of sixteen, which would be required was a recently 

 laid egg fixed upon.^ 



The larvae of bees, though without feet, are not altogether without 

 motion. They advance from their first station at the bottom of the cell, 

 as I before hinted, in a spiral direction. This movement, for the first 

 three days, is so slow as to be scarcely perceptible ; but after this it is more 

 easily discerned. The animal now makes two entire revolutions in about 

 an hour and three quarters ; and when the period of its metamorphosis 

 arrives, it is scarcely more than two lines from the mouth of the cell. Its 

 attitude, which is always the same, is a strong curve.^ This occasions the 

 inhabitant of a horizontal cell to be always perpendicular to the horizon, 

 and that of a vertical one to be parallel with it. 



A most remarkable difference, as I lately observed, takes place in 

 spinning their cocoons, — the grubs of workers and drones spinning com- 

 plete cocoons, while those that are spun by the females are incomplete, or 

 open at the lower end, and covering only the head and trunk and the first 

 segment of the abdomen. This variation is probably occasioned by the 

 different forms of the cells : for, if a female larva be placed in a worker's 

 cell, it will spin a complete cocoon ; and, vice versa, if a worker larva be 

 placed in a royal cell, its cocoon will be incomplete.^ No provision of 

 the Great Author of nature is in vain. In the present instance, the fact 

 which we are considering is of great importance to the bees ; for, were 

 the females wholly covered by the thick texture of a cocoon, their destruc- 

 tion by their rival competitors for the throne could not so readily be accom- 

 plished : they either would not be able to reach them with their stings, or 

 the stings might be detained by their barbs in the meshes of the cocoon, 

 so that they would not be able to disengage them. On the use of this 

 instinctive and murderous hatred of their rivals I shall soon enlarge. 



When our young prisoners are ready to emerge, they do not, like the 

 ants, require the assistance of the workers, but themselves eat through the 

 cocoon and the cell that incloses it. By a wise provision, which prevents 

 the injury or destruction of a cell, they generally make their way through 

 the cover or lid with which the workers had shut it up ; though sometimes, 

 but not often, a female will break through the side of her prison. 



Having thus shown you our little chemists in their preparatory states, 

 and carried you from the egg to the cocoon, both of which may be deemed 

 a kind of cradle, in which they are nursed to fit them for two very diffe- 

 rent conditions of existence, 1 must now introduce you to a scene more 

 interesting and diversified, in which all their wonderful instincts are dis- 

 ])layed in full action, and we see them exceed some of the most vaunted 

 products of human wisdom, art, and skill. 



' Huber, i. 215. Sohirach asserts, that in cold weather the disclosure of the imago takes 

 place two days later than in warm ; and Riem, that in a bad season the eggs will remain 

 in the cells munv months without hatching. (Schirach, 79. 241.) 



2 Schirach, t. 3. f. lU. » Huber, i. 221. 



