136 Development of Bees. 



the digestive tube of the larva at this time. It is probable that 

 honey is also given them, and so Dufour was wholly right 

 in urging that digested food was fed to the larvae, for honey 

 is digested nectar. He was also correct in supposing the 

 food of the larva to be a sort of chyle. M. Quinby, Doo- 

 little, and others, say water is also an element of this food. 

 But bees often breed very rapidly when they do not leave 

 the hive at all, and so water, other than that contained in 

 the honey, etc., cannot be added. The time when bees 

 seem to need water, and so repair to the rill and the pond, 

 is during the heat of spring and summer, when they are 

 most busy. May this not be quaffed for the most part to 

 slake their own thirst? If water is carried to the hives it 

 is doubtless given to the nurse bees. They rtiay need water 

 when the weather is hot and brood raising at its very 

 height. 



At first the larvaa lie at the bottom of the cell, in the 

 cream-like "bee-milk." Later they curl up, and when 

 fully grown, are straight (Fig. 24, Z'). They now turn 

 head down and cast their skin and digestive canal, then 

 turn with their head towards the mouth of the cell (Fig. 

 34, /"). Before this, however, the cell has been capped. 



In eight days from the laying of the egg, the worker cell, 

 like the queen cell, is capped over by the worker bees. 

 This cap is composed'of pollen and old wax, so it is darker, 

 more porous, and more easily broken than the caps of the 

 honey -cells; it is also more convex (Fig. 24, k). The larva, 

 now full grown, having lapped up all the food placed before 

 it, spins its silken cocoon, so excessively thin that it requires 

 a great number to appreciably reduce the size of the cell. 

 The silken part of the cocoon extends down from the cap 

 but a short distance, but like moths and many other insects, 

 the larval bee just before it pupates, spreads a thin glue or 

 varnish over the entire inner part of the cell. These cocoons, 

 partly of silk and partly of glue, are well seeri when we 

 reduce combs to wax with the solar wax extractor. These 

 always remain in the cells after the bees escape, and give 

 to old comb its dark color and great strength. Yet they 

 are so thin that cells used even for a dozen years, seem to 

 serve as well for brood as when first used. Indeed I have 



