THE WORKER-BEE, 69 
younger bees. The evidence, however, is not so conclusive as 
in the case of comb-building, inasmuch as they moy have con- 
gregated on the brood-combs because these are warmer than the 
others. 
““T may add another interesting observation. The faces in the 
intestines of the young Italian bees was viscid and yellow; that 
of the common or old bees was thin and limpid, like that of the 
queen-bee. This is confirmatory of the opinion, that, for the 
production of wax and jelly, the bees require pollen; but do 
not need any for their own sustenance.”—(B. Z., 1855, p. 163. 
Dr. Donhoff, translated by the late S. Wagner.) 
165. There are none but gentlemen of leisure in the com- 
monwealth of bees, but assuredly there are no such ladies, 
whether of high or low degree. The queen 
herself has her full share of duties, the 
royal office being no sinecure, when the 
mother who fills it must daily superintend 
the proper deposition of thousands of 
eggs. 
Fig. 24. “The eggs of bees are of a lengthened, oval 
THE EGG IN THE ghape with a slight curvature, and of a bluish 
itarnited ) white color: being besmeared, at the time of 
: laying, with a glutinous substance, they ad- 
here to the bases of the cells, and remain unchanged in figure or 
situation for three or four days; they are then hatched, the bot- 
tom of each cell presenting to view a small white worm.’— 
(Bevan.) 
166. For the first three days after their hatching, these 
worms are fed with a jelly, thought to be prepared or secre- 
ted by the upper pair of glands of the worker-bees (39), 
which are very large in the nurses. This milky -food is a 
whitish, transparent fluid, and is distributed to the larve, 
as itis needed. After four or perhaps five days, the larva 
is too large for the bottom of the cell, where it was coiled 
up, tod use the language of Swammerdam, like a dog when 
going to sleep ; and stretches itself till it occupies the whole 
