162 THE bbe-kbbpbr's guide ; 



When they smother, is not the moisture about them in part 

 the water of respiration rather than exclusive honey 7 



At first the larvse lie at the bottom of the cells, in the 

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

 grown, are straight (Fig. 39, /). They now turn head 

 down and cast their skin and digestive canal, then turn with 

 their heads towards the mouth of the cell (Fig. 39,/). Before 

 this, however, the cell has been capped. 



In eight days (Root says nine or ten) from the laying of 

 the egf^, 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. 39, i). 

 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 seen 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 good combs which have been in constant use nineteen 

 years. As before stated, the larva sheds its skin, and at the 

 last moults the alimentary canal or digestive tube with its con- 

 tents 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. 39, £■). 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 variable 

 period of repose. 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 bee with all its 

 appendages bound close about it, though the color is still 

 whitish, 



