48 THE BKE keeper's MANUAL. 



cave or hollowed inwards to give them greater strength to 

 resist the pressure of their contents ! 



To return to Be van, " The larva is no sooner perfectly 

 inclosed than it begins to line the cell by spinning round 

 itself, after the manner of the silk worm, a whitish silky 

 film or cocoon, by which it is encased, as it were, in a pod. 

 When it has undergone this change, it has usually borne the 

 name of nymph or pupa. The insect has now attained its 

 full growth, and the large amount of nutriment which it has 

 taken serves as a store for developing the perfect insect." 



" The working bee nymph spins its cocoon in thirty-six 

 hours. After passing about three days in this state of pre- 

 paration for a new existence, it gradually undergoes so 

 great a change as not to wear a vestige of its previous form, 

 but becomes armed with a firmer mail, and with scales of 

 a dark brown hue. On its belly six rings become distin- 

 guishable, which by slipping one over another enables the 

 bee to shorten its body whenever it has occasion to do so. 



" When it has reached the twenty-first day'of its existence, 

 counting from the moment the egg is laid, it comes forth a 

 perfect winged insect. The cocoon is left behind, and 

 forms a closely attached and exact lining to the cell in which 

 it was spun; by this means the breeding cells become 

 smaller and their partitions stronger, the oftener they change 

 their tenants ; and may become so much diminished in size 

 as not to admit of the perfect development of full sized 

 bees." 



" Such are the respective stages of the working bne : those 

 of the royal bee are as follows : she passes three days in 

 the egg and is five a worm ; the workers then close her 

 cell, and she immediately begins spinning her cocoon, which 

 occupies her twenty-four hours. On the tenth and eleventh 



