HYMENOPTERA. 363 
they have one bad fault: they are very fond of eating the eggs 
laid by the mother. They try to seize them as she deposits them, 
or drag them from the cells, and suck their contents. And so 
the mother is obliged to be incessantly defending her eggs against 
the voracity of the workers, and to be constantly on her guard, 
so as to be ready to drive away these marauders from cells newly 
filled. 
We owe to an English naturalist, Newport, the knowledge of 
another curious fact relating to the laying of humble bees, which 
is the expedient the females and the males have recourse to for 
hastening the hatching of the eggs. They place themselves, like 
fowls sitting on their eggs, over the cocoons containing the pup 
almost hatched. By breathing quickly, these industrious insects 
raise the temperature of their bodies, and consequently that of the 
air in the cells. Thanks to this supplementary heat, the meta- 
morphosis of the pups is much hastened. Newport, by shipping 
miniature thermometers between the cocoons of the nymphs and 
the sitting humble bees, ascertained that the temperature of the 
latter was about 34° C., whilst the temperature of the cocoons left 
to themselves was only 27° C.; that of the air in the rest of the. 
nest being only from 21° to 24°C. After many hours of incu- 
bation, at the same time natural and artificial, in which art and 
nature are so closely allied, after the sitting insects have many 
times relieved one another, the young humble bees come out of 
their cells. They are at first soft, greyish, moist, and very sus- 
ceptible to cold. But after a few hours they become stronger, 
and the yellow and black bands with which their abdomens are 
surrounded begin to be marked out. The spring laying produces 
exclusively workers. The greatest abundance of eggs are laid in 
August and September. The laying of the female eggs begins in 
July ; that of the males follows soon after. 
Until autumn, the humble bees are incessantly enlarging their 
nests, and multiplying their little pots of honey. Without accu- 
mulating a great stock of provisions, for which they have no 
occasion, they always keep in reserve a quantity of pollen and 
honey for their daily wants. The cells in which the honey is 
stored differ very much in shape. Some species of humble bees 
give them long and narrow necks; others, less recherché in their 
