THE GENESIS OF THE QUEEN 99 
form of a hexagon, this being the only shape 
approaching the cylindrical—the ideal form—of 
which a number will fit together over a plane 
surface without leaving useless spaces in between. 
Moreover, the cells needing to be closed at the 
bottom, half the material required for this purpose 
is saved by the device of placing the sheets of 
combined hexagons back to back, so that one base 
will serve for two cells. But it is not only in the 
construction of the cradles of the worker-bees that 
rigid economy is practised. From the moment 
that the egg hatches until the young grub changes 
into the chrysalis state, it is given only the smallest 
quantity of food that will support life and allow 
necessary development. 
In the case of the young queen-larva, however, 
a very different policy is instituted from the begin- 
ning. Not only is she given nursery-quarters 
allowing every facility for growth, but she is loaded 
with a specially rich kind of food night and day, 
until she actually swims in it. The nurse-bees are 
constantly pouring this glistening white substance 
into the cell for the whole five days of her larval 
existence, and the effect of this generous diet is 
obvious from the first in her more rapid growth, 
as compared with the worker-bee. A further 
advantage still is that the young queen has 
perfectly free access to the air at all stages of 
her development. The worker-cell is but sparsely 
ventilated, and that only through the narrow top, 
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