BEE MANUAL. 



71 



to hour. This includes the pupa or nymph period, and lasts 

 altogether thirteen days for workers and fourteen and a half 

 for drones ; and at length, on the twenty-second day from the 

 laying of the egg in the former, or on the twenty-fifth day in 

 the latter case, the fully formed bee cuts through the capping 

 of the cell with its mandibles, and emerges complete in every 

 respect, and ready, without any previous training, education, or 

 experience, to fulfil its functions, to execute all the delicate 

 operations, and to observe those rules of conduct which appear 

 to us (and justly) to be such marvels of intelligence, ingenuity, 

 dexterity, and even foresight. It is true that the actions of 

 these insects, from the moment they break through the cover- 

 ing of their cells, are evidently prompted and guided by such 

 intelligence and foresight — so indeed was the action of the grub 

 in spinning its own cocoon ; — but is it not absurd to attribute 

 the consequent results to any exercise of a reasoning faculty in 



Fig. 21.— WORKER NYMPH AND IARVA, IN COMB. 



the insect ? Even if we suppose it endowed at once with the 

 reasoning powers of man himself, would it not require a long 

 period of experience, or education, or both, before it could be 

 capable of building a cell or seeking for and bringing home a 

 load of honey or of pollen 1 It is therefore a mistake to talk 

 of the intelligence or ingenuity of the bee ; we have here to 

 deal evidently with instinct, which is simply the exercise, on 

 the part of the insect, of an intelligence not its own, and which, 

 to make use again of Mr. Cheshire's most appropriate words, 

 " but thinly veils the Worker whose understanding is infinite." 

 The foregoing illustration (Fig. 21) shows very clearly, at 

 about three times the natural size, the larva when just closed 

 in its cell, and before spinning its cocoon, and the pupa, or 

 nymph, when nearly developed, with the exception of the wings. 



