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INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY 



pollen-paste on the floor of the cavity of the nest; next she 

 builds up on this paste floor a little circular wall of brown 

 wax within which she lays a batch of eggs, immediately after- 

 wards closing up the waxen cell above them. In order that 

 the eggs may develop they must be kept warm, and the queen 

 broods over them day and night, only leaving them occasion- 

 ally to get the food necessary for herself, and soon also for the 

 developing grubs ; she stores some of the honey collected 

 during the day in a special egg-shaped waxen cell which she 



mk^. 



Fig. 298. — The Nest of a Common Humble Bee. (After Muoldey.) 

 (Part of the covering of the nest is removed to show the cocoons.) 



constructs just in the entrance of the brood-cavity of the 

 grassy nest, and from this store she sips during the night. After 

 four days the eggs hatch as little legless grubs which still 

 remain hidden within the waxen cell, feeding on the pollen- 

 paste which forms its floor ; as this is used up the queen re- 

 plenishes it, and she also passes in to the grubs a liquid 

 mixture of pollen and honey, through a little hole which she 

 makes in the thin wall of the cell. As the larvae grow they 

 are apt to break the waxen wall which confines them, and so 

 it is constantly added to from without by the mother-bee ; in 

 this way the size of the cell keeps pace with the growth of the 



