THE HONEY-BEE. 181 



poison-bag is connected with the sting by a tube. The piercing 

 organ consists of three needle-like points : one is larger than 

 the others, and this large style (s) has a reservoir at its base 

 where poison is stored up. The two smaller lancets are hollow, 

 and are barbed with eight to ten barbs, which hold and cause 

 the sting to be pulled out when the bee tries to withdraw it. 

 In the act of stinging the awl first pierces, then the lancets. 



The ova that give rise to workers hatch in three days into 

 white footless grubs, which are fed by workers, and mature in 

 eight days. The food of the grubs that are to become workers 

 consists of a scanty supply of a white fluid composed of pollen 

 and honey. The cell in which the grub lives is then capped 

 over with pollen and wax. The larva, when mature, spins 

 itself a cocoon of white silk of extreme thinness. Three days 

 after the insect has been capped in, it pupates. In another 

 week the bee emerges. The freshly emerged bees do not leave 

 the nest for two days or so, and are easily told by their paler 

 colour. As a rule, a worker lives from eight to ten months, 

 when hatched in the autumn, but when hatched in the spring 

 it seldom survives more than three months. Worker-bees do 

 all the work of the hive, secrete wax, build the comb, feed the 

 brood, and ventilate the hive. The older bees chiefly collect 

 the honey, pollen, and the so-called propolis. The hives are 

 ventilated and the temperature reduced by the violent vibration 

 of the bees' wings, whilst extra heat is generated by forced 

 respiration. 



The queen-bee comes from an egg placed in a specially pre- 

 pared cell, usually situated on the edge of the comb, and 

 composed of wax and pollen. A queen-bee may be formed 

 from an egg or from a worker larva when quite young, the 

 larva being surrounded by a "queen cell." The larva destined 

 to become a queen is fed on a plenteous, rich, nitrogenous diet, 

 " queen jelly," with which the cell is completely filled. The 

 queen larva is longer and larger than the worker, and feeds for 

 five days, then forming her open cocoon, in which after three 



