4_ DRONES. 



days it grows confiderably larger, ceafcs to 

 take food, is then fealed up, b, with a waxen 

 cap, and continues thus about twelve days, 

 when the royal nymph burfts open the co- 

 ver, and iffues forth a complete princefs. 

 Cold weather makes two or three days dif- 

 ference in the time of exclufion. The 

 queen is impregnated about Auguft, by 

 virtue of which (he is enabled to breed in 

 the fpring, till me produces frem drones. 



Similar to the procefs above, is that of 

 the drones and workers ; excepting that the 

 eggs are hatched in the common cells, which 

 ferve in a double capacity, either for honey 

 or brood. The cells for drones are gene- 

 rally the two middlemofl: combs of the hive; 

 the cells are deeper than thofe for the work- 

 ers ? and, when they happen not to be long 

 enough, are lengthened by a cap of wax. 

 They are generally hatched in twenty-one 

 days* 



DRONES 



Are thofe large bees (pi. II. fig. 5 .) 

 which ufually appear before the rifmg of 

 fwarms. They are the only males, and 



are 



