48 NATURAL HISTORY OP THE HONEY BEE. 



adaptation of means to ends. Who can blame the warmest 

 enthusiasm of the Apiarian in view of a sagacity which 

 seems scarcely inferior to that of man ? 



" The eggs of bees," I quote from the admirable treatise 

 of Bevan, " are of a lengthened oval shape, with a slight 

 curvature, and of a bluish white color : being besmeared at 

 the time of laying, with a glutinous substance, they adhere 

 to the bases of the cells, and remain unchanged in figure or 

 situation for three or four days ; they are then hatched, the 

 bottom of each cell presenting to view a small white worm. 

 On its growing so as to touch the opposite angle of the cell, 

 it coils itself up, to use the language of Swammerdam, like 

 a dog when going to sleep ; and floats in a whitish trans- 

 parent fluid, which is deposited in the cells by the nursing- 

 bees, and by which it is probably nourished ; it becomes 

 gradually enlarged in its dimensions, till the two extremities 

 touch one another and form a ring. In this state it is called 

 a larva or worm. So nicely do the bees calculate the quan* 

 tity of food which will be required, that none remains in the 

 cell when it is transformed to a nymph. It is the opinion 

 of many eminent naturalists that farina does not constitute 

 the sole food of the larva, but that it consists of a mixture 

 of farina, honey and water, partly digested in the stomachs 

 of the nursing-bees." 



" The larva having derived its support, in the manner 

 above described, for four, five or six days, according to the 

 season," (the development being retarded in cool weather, 

 and badly protected hives,) " continues to increase during 

 that period, till it occupies the whole breadth and nearly the 

 length of the cell. The nursing bees now seal over the cell, 

 with a light brown cover, externally more or less convex, 

 (the cap of a drone cell is more convex than that of a 

 worker,) and thus difiering from that of a honey cell which 



