NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HONEY BEE. 5 



turns half round, and, retiring, leaves an egg behind her. 

 When she lays a considerable number, she does it equally 

 on exactly opposite sides of the comb, thus concentrating 

 and economizing heat for the development of the brood. 

 Three or four days afterwards, the egg is hatched, and a 

 small white larva or caterpillar makes its appearance ; it 

 lies coiled up and floats in a whitish transparent fluid, 

 which is deposited in sufficient quantity by the Workers 

 for its nourishment. The Nurse Bees now incessantly 

 attend upon them, and they thrive and grow so rapidly 

 that they double their size in about twelve hours, and in 

 from four to five days they form a ring, and occupy nearly 

 the whole length and breadth of the cell. 



The Bees now seal over the cell with a cover made of 

 wax and Bee-bread, whose colour matches that of the 

 surrounding old combs. This cover is convex, that of 

 the Drone cells more so than that of the Workers, and 

 minute holes in it admit air to the larva. Like most 

 other insects, the larva having completed its growth spins 

 round itself a whitish silky cocoon, in which it under- 

 goes the change to a pupa or chrysalis, and eventually in 

 due time appears at maturity as an imago, or perfect 

 insect. 



The cocoons are made of an extremely thin transparent 

 or semi-transparent film, resembling gold-beater's skin, 

 but without a wrinkle. This film is never removed by 

 the bees, all other larvae bred in the cell making new films, 

 which remain until the capacity of the cell is sensibly 

 reduced. These films take and retain the hexagon form 

 of the cells most accurately. A remarkable circumstance 

 is the perfect stretching of the film all round the wax cell ; 

 there is never found the least wrinkle or laxity, each film 

 being intensely stretched in all parts ; there is no interval 

 whatever ; the whole of each cell is lined by one entire 



