HYMENOPTEEA. 



159 



nursery, and in the kind of work performed later, age 

 plays a part. This somewhat unsettles the belief in the 

 specialization which has been supposed to exist in a bee 

 community. After numerous broods of workers have 

 been added to the community the workers build some 

 larger cells in which the 

 queen lays some unfer- 

 tilized eggs, and from 

 these hatch the drones. 

 These larvae are fed by 

 the nurse-workers, and 

 with the same food, but 

 in this case the larval 

 period lasts six days and 

 the pupal period fifteen 

 days-. When the com- 

 munity is so large as to 

 crowd the hive, at least 

 that is the way we have 

 of saying what the bee 

 has a finer instinct for 

 knowing, the comb- 

 workers tear down some 

 of the cells, usually, and 

 build up a few giant 

 cells or queen cells. They may build them on the outside 

 of the comb cells, and they aire usually at right angles with 

 the other cells. (Fig. 65.) 



From what source comes this impulse for building 

 queen cells is not known. At any rate, their being built 

 is not known early in the history of the colony when the 

 hive is scantily filled with bees. Bees seem unable to 

 count, and it would be equally strange to accredit them 



Fig. 65. — ^Portion of brood comb of honey- 

 bee showing one queen cell. 



