XXIV INSECTA : HYMENOPTERA 383 



larvae, until it may be as large as a walnut. Seven days 

 after hatching, each larva spins a yellow egg-shaped cocoon of 

 a tough papery substance, and the queen then removes the 

 enveloping wax, disclosing the cocoons standing upright 

 side by side ; over them she still broods for they still need 

 warmth. Eleven or twelve days after pupation the first 

 perfect worker bees emerge through small round holes which 

 they bite in the upper end of their cocoons ; two or three 

 days later, these young bees are able to go out and collect food, 

 and from now onwards they relieve the queen of much of her 

 work ; they build new cells, nurse the grubs which hatch out 

 from the later batches of eggs laid by the queen, and also they 

 store a limited amount of honey, often economically using for 

 honey-pots their own discarded cocoons which they line with 

 wax, increasing the depth and narrowing the mouth by a 

 fresh rim of wax but never quite closing them, for the honey 

 is only for the immediate use of the young as they are reared, 

 and not for winter storage ; some few special wax honey-cells 

 and pollen-cells are, however, also constructed. 



In flourishing colonies a thin ceiling of wax is plastered 

 over the upper surface of the nest cavity. 



By the end of the season there are nearly 200 workers in 

 the nest, and also many drones and new queen-bees ; the 

 drones leave the nest as soon as they can fly, and for three 

 or four weeks they support themselves outside, feeding on 

 pollen and honey whilst they wait for the time when the new 

 young queens will join them in the marriage flight. 



These new queens alone survive the winter, the foundress 

 of the old colony, as well as all the workers and drones, dying 

 at the approach of cold weather. The queen Earth Humble 

 Bee is as much as -^ of an inch long and ^^ of an inch 

 broad across the abdomen. She is black, with a band of 

 yellow across the front of the thorax, another across the front 

 of the abdomen, and a yellowish patch at the end of the body. 

 The males and workers are similarly marked, but are smaller, 

 the male being about \ an inch long and the worker \ of 

 an inch ; also in them the patch at the end of the body 

 is almost white. The nests of Humble Bees are said to be 

 often destroyed by field-mice and weasels. 



Bombus lapidarius, the Stone Humble Bee, is also very 

 abundant ; it is as large as B. terrestris, from which, however. 



