Development of Workers. 134 
good combs which have been in constant use nineteen years. 
As before stated the larva sheds its skin, and at the last molt 
the alimentary canal or digestive tube with its contents as 
well. These, as stated by Vogel, are pushed to the bottom 
of the cell. In three days the insect assumes the pupa state 
(Fig 24, g). In all insects the spinning of the cocoon 
seems an exhaustive process, for so far as I have observed, 
and that is quite at length, this act is succeeded by a varia- 
ble period of repose. The pupaisalso called anymph. By 
cutting open cells it is easy to determine just the date of 
forming the cocoon, and of changing to the pupa state. 
The pupa looks like the mature hee with all its appendages 
bound close about it, though the ‘color is still whitish. 
In twenty-one days the bees emerge from the cells. The 
old writers were quite mistaken in thinking that the advent 
of these was an occasion of joy and excitement among the 
bees. All apiarists have noticed how utterly unmoved the 
bees are, as they push over and crowd by these new-comers 
in the most heedless and discourteous manner imaginable. 
Wildman tells of seeing the workers gathering pollen and 
honey the same day that they came forth from the cells. 
This idea is quickly disproved if we Italianize black bees. 
We know that for some days,—usually about two weeks if 
the colony is in a normal condition, though if all the bees 
are very young it may be only one week—these young bees 
do not leave the hive at all, except in case of swarming, 
when bees even too young to fly will attempt to go with 
the crowd. However, the young bees do fly out for a sort 
of “play spell” before they commence regularly to work 
in the field. They *doubtless wish to try their wings. 
These young bees, like young drones and queens, are much 
lighter colored when they first leave the cell. 
The worker bees never attain a great age. Those reared 
in autumn may live for eight or nine months, and if in 
queenless stocks, where little labor is performed, even 
longer; while those reared in spring will wear out in three 
months, and when most busy will often die in from thirty 
to forty-five days. None of these bees survive the year 
through, so there is a limit to the number which may exist 
inacolony. Asa good queen will lay, when in her best 
