Development of Workers. 137 



good combs which have been in constant use nineteen years, 

 As before stated the larva sheds its skin, and at the last moll 

 the alimentary canal or digestive tube with its contents 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 24, gY 111 al^ 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 varia- 

 ble period of repose. The pupa is also called a nymph. By 

 cutting open cells it is easy to determine just the date oi 

 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. 



In twenty-one days the bees emerge from the cells. The 

 old writers were quite mistaken in thinking that the advent 

 of these was an occasion of joy and excitement among the 

 bees. All apiarists have noticed how utterly unmoved the 

 bees are, as they push over and crowd by these new-comers 

 in the most heedless and discourteous manner imaginable. 

 Wildman tells of seeing the workers gathering pollen and 

 honey the same day that they came forth from the cells. 

 This idea is quickly disproved if we Italianize black bees. 

 We know that for some days, — usually about two weeks if 

 the colony is in a normal condition, though if all the bees 

 are very young it may be only one week — these young bees 

 do not leave the hive at all, except in case of swarming, 

 when bees even too young to fly will attempt to go with 

 the crowd. However, the young bees do fly out for a sort 

 of "play spell" before they commence regularly to work 

 in the field. They doubtless wish to try their wings. 

 These young bees, like young drones and queens, are much 

 lighter colored when they first leave the cell. 



The worker bees never attain a great age. Those reared 

 in autumn may live for eight or nine months, and if in 

 queenless stocks, where little labor is performed, even 

 longer; while those reared in spring will wear out in three 

 months, and when most busy will often die in from thirty 

 to forty-five days. None of these bees survive the year 

 through, so there is a limit to the number which may exist 

 in a colony. As a good queen will lay, when in her best 



