THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE BROOD. 18 
upon cabbage-leaves, are composed of a thin membrane, filled 
with a whitish liquor, and being besmeared at the time of laying 
with a glutinous substance, they adhere to the bases of the cells, 
and remain unchanged in figure or situation for four days; then 
they are hatched, the bottom of each cell presenting to view a small 
white worm or maggot, with several ventral rings. On its growing so 
as to touch the opposite angle of the cell, it coils itself up in the 
shape of a semicircle. To use the language of Swammerdam, it 
coils itself up like a dog when he is going to sleep, and floats in a whi- 
tish transparent fluid, which is deposited”in the cells by the nursing 
bees, and by which it is probably nourished; it becomes gradually 
enlarged in its dimensions, till the two extremities touch one another 
and form aring. In this state it obtains indifferently the name of 
worm, larva, maggot, or grub, and is fed with farina or bee-bread. The 
slightest movement on the part of the nursing bees suffices to attract 
it to its food, to receive the welcome morsels of which it eagerly opens 
its two lateral pincers, and a most liberal supply is afforded to it, 
though by no means trenching on the bounds of prodigality. So 
nicely do the bees calculate the quantity which will be required, that 
none remains in the cell when the larva is transformed to a nymph. 
It was the opinion of Reaumur, and is still that of many eminent 
naturalists, that farina does not constitute the sole food of the bee 
larvee; kut that it consists of a mixture of farina with a certain pro- 
portion of honey and water, partly digested in the stomachs of the 
nursing bees, the relative proportions of honey and farina varying ac- 
cording to the age of the young. The compound at first is nearly in- 
sipid, but gradually receives an accession of sweetness which increases 
as the insects approach maturity. 
The larva having derived support in the manner above described, 
for four, five, or six days, according to the season, continues to in- 
crease during that period, till it occupies the whole breadth and 
nearly the length of the cell. The nursing bees now seal up the 
cell, with alight brown cover, externally more or less convex, (the 
cap of a drone-cell is more convex than that of a worker,) and thus 
differing from that of a honey-cell, which. is paler and somewhat 
concave. The larva is no sooner perfectly inclosed than it begins to 
