THE GENESIS OF THE QUEEN 99 



form of a hexagon, this being the only shape 

 approaching the cylindrical — the ideal form — of 

 which a number will fit together over a plane 

 surface without leaving useless spaces in between. 

 Moreover, the cells needing to be closed at the 

 bottom, half the material required for this purpose 

 is saved by the device of placing the sheets of 

 combined hexagons back to back, so that one base 

 will serve for two cells. But it is not only in the 

 construction of the cradles of the worker-bees that 

 rigid economy is practised. From the moment 

 that the egg hatches until the young grub changes 

 into the chrysalis state, it is given only the smallest 

 quantity of food that will support life and allow 

 necessary development. 



In the case of the young queen-larva, however, 

 a very different policy is instituted from the begin- 

 ning. Not only is she given nursery-quarters 

 allowing every facility for growth, but she is loaded 

 with a specially rich kind of food night and day, 

 until she actually swims in it. The nurse-bees are 

 constantly pouring this glistening white substance 

 into the cell for the whole five days of her larval 

 existence, and the effect of this generous diet is 

 obvious from the first in her more rapid growth, 

 as compared with the worker-bee. A further 

 advantage still is that the young queen has 

 perfectly free access to the air at all stages of 

 her development. The worker-cell is but sparsely 

 ventilated, and that only through the narrow top, 

 7 — 2 



