132 THE LORE OF THE HONEY-BEE 
development of the ovaries might be expected—an 
important change ismade. The allowance of bee- 
milk is greatly reduced, while plain honey is given 
in addition, but on the same parsimonious scale, to 
the end of its five days’ larval life. 
What other influences, if any, are brought to 
bear on the young worker-bee at this portentous 
stage of her career, it is impossible to say. But 
at least the change in the food is well ascertained, 
and the results—whether of this alone, or in com- 
bination with other treatment—are more than 
astounding. Not only is the development of the 
sex-organs so completely arrested that hardly a 
trace of them can be discovered in the adult 
worker-bee, but, from. that moment, the larva 
seems to become an essentially different creature, 
reflecting more and more the attributes of her 
nurses, and showing wider and wider departure 
from those of the mother-bee. As soon as the 
worker changes into the pupa state, organs appear 
of which the queen has not the faintest rudiments. 
She receives her special equipment for field-work 
in a pair of baskets for carrying pollen. Her 
tongue is lengthened, so that it may reach the 
nectar hidden deep down in the clover-bells. She 
is to become a builder, and therefore is provided 
with half a dozen crucibles wherein to prepare the 
wax. Her useless ovipositor is changed into a 
weapon: it is straightened, shortened ; the barbs 
upon it are multiplied and strengthened ; a gland, 
