GENERATION OF THE HONEY-BEE. 19 



dozen woi-kers, who -watch her every motion apparently with the 

 utmost attention. Previous to depositing the egg, the queen puts 

 her head into the cell for a moment, as if. to ascertain its empti- 

 ness and fitness otherwise to receive its charge. If she find 

 everything satisfactory, she then turns round, introduces her pos- 

 terior extremity until it almost touches the bottom of the cell, 

 and lays the eggs. Mr. Wildman says, that while thus occupied, 

 the attendant bees, surrounding her in a circle, perform a sort of 

 obeisance, and caress her with their feet and trunks. I am dis- 

 posed to think this a little fanciful ; I have never witnessed any 

 such demonstration myself, but it is possible that my observation 

 may have been defective. When she has deposited one egg, she 

 goes on to another cell, and so on, and after laying about ten 

 eggs in succession, she retires for awhile, and then resumes her 

 prolific employment. The egg remains without undergoing any 

 apparent change for about four days, when it gradually assumes 

 the form and aspect of a little maggot, changing in the same 

 manner as the caterpillar. This little maggot is nouiished by 

 the bees until the eighth day, by which time it has grown so 

 much as to occupy the whole cell, when they close up the cell, 

 and imprison its inmate for about twelve days more, during which 

 time it undergoes gradual transformation until it becomes a 

 nymph or aurelia, presenting the appearance of a perfect fly, 

 except in being soft and white in color. 



The white pellicle which envelopes the nymph now gradually 

 strips ofi^, and about the twentieth day the perfect fly is ready to 

 attempt extricating itself from its confinement. This object she 

 speedily attains by cutting round the cover with her mandibles. 



On first emerging from the cell, the young bee appears weak 

 and lethargic, doubtless from the novelty of its situation and the 

 eflFects of the new medium by which it is surrounded. It soon, 

 however, acquires vigor, and the very first day of its entrance 

 into the world it may be seen returning from the fields, emulating 

 its elder bom comrades in the richness and quantity of the sweet 

 burden with which it is laden. 



As soon as the young bee has left the cell, two workers come 

 to it, one of which draws out and works up the wax of which it 

 was composed, while the other repairs it, restores its symmetry, 

 and cleans out its interior. Sometimes new eggs are deposited 

 in these cells the same day, and sometimes they are filled with 



