132 THE LORE OF THE HONEY-BEE 



development of the ovaries might be expected — an 

 important change is made. The allowance of bee- 

 milk is greatly reduced, while plain honey is given 

 in addition, but on the same parsimonious scale, to 

 the end of its five days' larval life. 



What other influences, if any, are brought to 

 bear on the young worker-bee at this portentous 

 stage of her career, it is impossible to say. But 

 at least the change in the food is well ascertained, 

 and the results — whether of this alone, or in com- 

 bination with other treatment — are more than 

 astounding. Not only is the development of the 

 sex-organs so completely arrested that hardly a 

 trace of them can be discovered in the adult 

 worker-bee, but, from that moment, the larva 

 seems to become an essentially different creature, 

 reflecting more and more the attributes of her 

 nurses, and showing wider and wider departure 

 from those of the mother-bee. As soon as the 

 worker changes into the pupa state, organs appear 

 of which the queen has not the faintest rudiments. 

 She receives her special equipment for field-work 

 in a pair of baskets for carrying pollen. Her 

 tongue is lengthened, so that it may reach the 

 nectar hidden deep down in the clover-bells. She 

 is to become a builder, and therefore is provided 

 with half a dozen crucibles wherein to prepare the 

 wax. Her useless ovipositor is changed into a 

 weapon : it is straightened, shortened ; the barbs 

 upon it are multiplied and strengthened ; a gland, 



