74 METAMORPHOSIS 



workers having honey and digested pollen given 

 them, while the drones have honey and raw 

 pollen. 



Except so far as growth is concerned, the larvse 

 do not change much for the time they are feeding. 

 As they grow larger, they are given food more 

 abundantly, until in five or six days from the time 

 they emerged from the egg, they have filled their 

 cells and finished feeding. They then spend two 

 days spinning a silken shroud for themselves, the 

 cells are sealed over with a mixture of wax and 

 pollen by the workers, and the larva begins 

 to be transformed into a perfect bee. These 

 wonderful changes have been so well described 

 by the great masters of bee lore that I dare not 

 attempt to do the same. Suffice it to say that, 

 in about a week after they are sealed over, these 

 footless, worm-like grubs become marvellous 

 winged insects, provided with the most wonder- 

 ful apparatus for sucking nectar, carrying pollen, 

 and making wax, besides possessing numerous 

 other complicated organs and parts. 



The rate of development varies with the 

 different kinds of bees. The queen, who is fed 

 the whole time on the special food, completes 

 her transformations very quickly, for her cell is 

 sealed over at the same time as the workers', that 

 is about nine or ten days from the laying of the 

 egg, but she only passes about four days in her 

 quiescent condition, whereas workers take eleven 



