100 a 
i 
should be well understood before we begin to reason on 
the nature of this insect. We will now develop the pic- 
ture under these five different points of view. a hag 
Ist. The egg of the queen mother, before it is fecundated 
by the drones, contains only an imperfect germ, which can 
never hatch so long as it remains in that imperfect state. 
The egg laid by the queen is glued to the bottom of the — 
cell, and the cell is never closed till the egg is fecundated. — 
But, if the egg has been laid after the massacre of the 
drones, the cel! must remain open till spring, after the birth 
of new drones, hatched in the same: hive, from eggs fecun- 
dated the preceding year, before the massacre. ‘ 
But why does this cell remain open, from one season to 
the other? The answer is in the solution of the following 
observation. 
2d. As soon as the ege has been fecundated by the 
drones, the neuter bees of the interior seal up the cell con- 
taining it with a pellicle of waxs and the germ of the insect — 
to be produced remains shut up in the cell. 
- This waxen pellicle is never broken but by the insect it- 
self, when it shall arrive at a state of perfection. ( 
But the egg which is not fecundated, is not considered 
by the family as capable of furnishing a subject to the state. 
This is the reason why the cell which contains it is not 
_closed with a waxen pellicle. This never will be, till the 
ege deposited, be fecundated by the drones. ee 
$d. The waxen pellicle, which closes the entrance of the 
cell, is an order of nature, instinctively executed by the 
bees, for the better preservation of the individual which is — 
to be produced, 5 ie 
This individual will rest in that species of tomb during — 
autumn and winter. On the return of spring, the heat of 
the atmosphere increasing that of the interior of the hive, 
the egg will ferment, and the germ, passing from nothing 
into life, will produce a worm. 
4th. As soon as this worm comes out of the egg, it forms 
from its own essence a robe, in which it envelops itself, 
_and no sooner is the robe complete, than the insect ceases 
to be a worm, and becomes a nymph. But the pellicle, 
which closes the entrance of the cell, is constantly pre- 
served, and respected by the colony. 
5th. Finally, this nymph is scarcely formed before it be- 
comes a bee, and divests itself of its nymphal robe, which 
