Ilo ASSOCIATION OF ORGANISMS—THE WEB OF LIFE 
proportion of pollen being added. When a cell is of full size it 
is lined with a mixture of pollen and honey, several eggs are 
laid in it, and a roof is put on. After several days’ rest the 
next cell is made, and stocked in the same way. About the time 
that the second cell is completed duties of another kind are added 
to the tale of work. For, meanwhile, the eggs first laid have 
hatched out, and thé bee-grubs, having exhausted their scanty 
store of provisions, require feeding. To do this their mother 
bites a hole in the enclosing cell, and supplies honey from her 
mouth as required. Here, and in other cases, the ‘‘honey” is 
not the same thing as the “nectar” found in flowers. A bee 
swallows the latter, taking it into a crop or “honey-bag”, into 
which the gullet dilates. Within this receptacle it undergoes 
a kind of fermentation by which it is converted into honey. So 
far the life-history is much like that of a solitary form, all the 
work being done by the mother. But in the next stage division 
of labour begins to play an important part. The full-fed grubs 
spin silken cocoons, and pass into the quiescent or pupa stage, 
from which they emerge as “workers”. By gnawing away the 
wax the queen assists their escape from the enclosing cell. As 
workers become numerous they justify their name by under- 
taking the labours of building and storing, ultimately enabling 
the queen to devote herself entirely to egg-laying. For each 
egg a separate cell is constructed. As the community increases 
in size small females may be produced, and towards autumn larger 
“drone cells” are made, and still larger “queen cells”. It is 
stated that these are not stored with food, the corresponding 
grubs being from the first assiduously nursed by the workers. 
By the time that drones and queens are mature the community 
has attained its full size, and may consist of from 300 to 400 
individuals, under favourable circumstances. The pairing of the 
young queens in the course of a nuptial flight constitutes the 
climax of the year’s drama, for as winter approaches the temporary 
community becomes disintegrated. All the workers and drones 
perish, together with many of the queens, but some of the latter 
live through the winter in a torpid state to found fresh societies 
the following spring. It should be added to this account that 
when the community is in full working order special unclosed 
cells are made, to be stored with honey or pollen for general use. 
These “honey tubs” and “pollen tubs” serve as a larder, which 
