ii6 BEE-FARMING. 



that none remains in the cell when it is transformed into 

 a nymph. It is the opinion of many eminent naturalists 

 that pollen does not constitute the sole food of the grub, 

 but that it consists of a mixture of pollen, honey, and 

 water, partly digested in the stomachs of the nursing bees : 

 one point is clear, it is highly nitrogenous. 



The larva, having derived its support in the manner 

 above described for four, five, or six days, according to the 

 season, continues to increase during that period till it 

 occupies the whole breadth or length of the cell. The 

 nursing bees now seal over the cell with a light brown 

 cover, externally more or less convex (the cap of a drone- 

 cell being more convex than that of a worker-cell), 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 line the cell, by spinning round 

 itself, after the manner of a silkworm, a whitish silky 

 film or cocoon, by which it is encased as it were in a 

 pod. When it has undergone this change it is generally 

 called nymph or larva. It has now attained its full growth, 

 and the large amount of nutriment which it has taken 

 serves as a store for developing the perfect insect. 



The working-bee nymph spins its cocoon in thirty- 

 six hours. After passing about three days in this state of 

 preparation for a new existence it gradually undergoes so 

 great a change as not to bear a vestige of its previous form. 



When it has reached the twenty-first day of its exist- 

 ence, counting from the time the egg was laid, it comes 

 forth a perfect winged insect. The cocoon is left behind 

 and forms a closely attached and exact lining to the cell 

 in which it was spun. By this means the breeding-cells 

 become smaller, and their partitions stronger, the oftener 

 they change their tenants, and may become so much 

 diminished in size as not to admit of the perfect develop- 

 ment of full-sized bees. Such are the respective stages of 



