E1RTH OF THE YOUNG BEE. 341 



belly, and the proboscis bent the whole of its length. The 

 chrysalis in this state is of a dusky white, and having 

 attained its full growth, the cell is covered over with a slight 

 film, in which the insect progresses from its nymphal state 

 to the perfect bee. The entire period from the deposition 

 of the egg to the egress of the perfect bee from the cell is 

 about twenty-one or twenty-three days, according to the 

 temperature of the season. In the hottest part of the sum- 

 mer, the birth of the bee has been known to take place in 

 eighteen days, and some naturalists affirm that it has taken 

 place in fifteen, a circumstance, which we can suppose to 

 happen only in very hot climates. The queen bee takes 

 about eighteen days in coming to perfection. These de- 

 velopments, however, are slower or more rapid in one hive 

 than another, according to the forwardness or backwardness 

 of the season, or the greater or less population of the hive. 



On the young bee arriving at maturity, it makes use of 

 its forceps or teeth to liberate itself from its confinement by 

 biting through the pellicle of wax with which the cell is 

 covered. This is, however, to some bees a task not very 

 easy of execution, and many die in the operation, especially 

 if the weather be cold. In this respect, there appears to be 

 a deficiency in the instinct of the bee, which under almost 

 all other circumstances is so prominently displayed ; whilst 

 the young bees are struggling to effect their emancipation, 

 the old bees appear to take not the slightest notice of them ; 

 but they have no sooner emerged from their cells, than the 

 old bees flock around them, cleaning them with their pro- 

 boscis of any extraneous matter, which they may have 

 brought with them from the cell, and so eager do the bees 

 appear in the exertion of this part of their duty, that to the 

 casual observer it would seem as if they were grossly mal- 

 treating their new companion, for two or three of the bees 

 pounce upon him at once, turning him about in every direc- 

 tion, whilst the new-born insect cleans its antenna? with its 



