ECONOMY OF HIVE BEE. iq 



furnished, as we notice, at the bottoms of numbers 

 of the cells, whitish tiny legless grubs (0, Fig. 3), 

 evidently incapable of seeking their own food in any 

 way. This is brought to them by the younger bees 

 of the stock, which do not normally fly abroad, but 

 which make the helpless larvae (grubs) the especial 

 objects of their care, elaborating for them the two 

 kinds of "pap," which form their sole nourishment, 

 by a process respecting which great errors have 

 been propagated. We shall have much to say 

 about it presently. The materials required for the 

 somewhat circuitous elaboration of the given food are 

 honey, pollen, and water, which last, if need be, is 

 brought home in quantity, the former two being 

 placed in the store cells, as we now understand, 

 by the foragers, the name commonly given to the 

 flying bees, while the feeding bees are very ap- 

 propriately called nurses, although there is no actual 

 distinction between them, as some former writers 

 thought. Growing older, the nurses turn to foraging, 

 but they do this in consequence of a glandular 

 change coming on with age, which makes nurse 

 work unsuitable; but more of this hereafter. This 

 pap may be seen, in appearance like arrowroot made 

 with water, surrounding the bodies of the grubs (see 

 FL, Fig. 4). They partially float in it, and, besides 

 absorbing it by the mouth, are commonly supposed to 

 take it in by that part of the skin which is submerged ; 

 but it is not correct, as stated by Cook, for reasons 

 presently given, to say that the food is " all capable 

 of nourishment, and thus all assimilated." 



These model nurses are ever perambulating the 



