20 BEES AND BEE-KEEPING. 



combs, and, in the darkness of the hive, so examine 

 the contents of every cell, by exploring it with 

 their thread-like antennae— which are most sensitive 

 organs, placed between the eyes, and well seen in 

 many subsequent illustrations, especially Plate II. — that 

 no grub escapes due attention, and food follows 

 close upon appetite, although, in a strong colony, often 

 as many as 12,000 larvse will need pretty frequent 

 visitation. The larva, or grub, grows apace, but not 

 without experiencing a difficulty to which the 

 human family is, in some sort, subject in the period 

 of youth. Its coat is inelastic, and does not grow 

 with the wearer, so that it soon, fitting badly, has to 

 be thrown off ; but, happily, in the case of the larva, 

 a new and larger one has already been formed be- 

 neath it, and the discarded garment, more delicate 

 than gossamer, is pushed to the bottom of the cell. 

 It would be singular, were it not for the abounding 

 errors of bee literature, that Reaumur and Huber 

 have asserted (followed by many others with a uni- 

 formity which is not the outcome of investigation) 

 that the bee larva does not change its skin, but only 

 grows larger. A little patient looking would have 

 found the old and ruptured pellicles, and so pretty 

 conclusively have settled the question. In like 

 manner to the first, moult succeeds moult, to the 

 probable number of six, when, after about four days' 

 feeding, the well-nourished creature, loaded with 

 fat, lies at the lower part of the cell curled up, 

 as one is seen to do near H, Fig. 3. At this 

 time, its weight is scarcely less than double that of 

 the bee into which its natural transformations will 



