212 AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG. 
Wasps in the construction of their nests have solely in view the accom- 
modation of their young ones; and to these their cells are exclusively 
devoted. Bees, on the contrary (1 am speaking of the common hive-bee), 
appropriate a considerable number of their cells to the reception of honey 
intended for the use of the society. Yet the education of the young 
brood is their chief object ; and to this they constantly sacrifice all per- 
sonal and selfish considerations. In a new swarm the first care is to 
build a series of cells to serve as cradles; and little or no honey is col- 
lected until an ample store of bee-bread, as it is called, has been laid up 
for their food. This bee-bread is composed of the pollen of flowers, which 
the workers are incessantly employed in gathering, flying from flower to 
flower, brushing from the stamens their yellow treasure, and collecting it 
in the little baskets with which their hind legs are so admirably provided ; 
then hastening to the hive, and having deposited their booty, returning for 
anew load. The provision thus furnished by one set of labourers is care- 
fully stored up by another, until the eggs which the queen-bee has laid, 
and which, adhering by a glutinous covering, she places nearly upright in 
the bottom of the cell, are hatched. With this bee-bread, after it has 
undergone a conversion into a sort of whitish jelly by being received into 
the bee’s stomach, where it is probably mixed with honey and regurgi- 
tated, the young brood immediately upon their exclusion, and until their 
change into nymphs, are diligently fed by other bees, which anxiously 
attend upou them and several times a day afford a fresh supply. Different 
bees are seen successively to introduce their heads into the cells containing 
them, and after remaining in that position some moments, during which 
they replace the expended provision, pass on to those in the neighbour- 
hood. Others often immediately succeed, and in like manner put in their — 
heads as if to see that the young ones have everything necessary ; which 
being ascertained by a glance, they immediately proceed, and stop only 
when they find a cell almost exhausted of food. That the office of these 
purveyors is no very simple affair will be admitted, when it is understood. 
that the food of all the grubs is not the same, but that it varies according 
to their age, being insipid when they are young, and, when they have 
nearly attained maturity, more sugary and. somewhat acid. The larve 
destined for queen-bees, too, require a food altogether different from that 
appropriated to those of drones and workers. It may be recognised by 
its sharp and pungent taste. 
So accurately is the supply of food proportioned to the wants of the 
larvee, that when they haye attained their full growth and are ready to 
become nymphs, not an atom is left unconsumed, At this period, intui- 
tively known to their assiduous foster-parents, they terminate their cares 
by sealing up each cell with a lid of wax, convex in those containing the 
larvae of drones, and nearly flat in those containing the larvae of workers, 
beneath which the enclosed tenants spin in security their cocoon. In all 
these labours neither the queen nor the drones take the slightest share. 
They fall exclusively upon the workers, who, constantly called upon to 
tend fresh broods, as those brought to maturity are disposed of, devote 
nearly the whole of their existence to these maternal offices. 
1 Tt is not unlikely that it may undergo some other alteration in the bee’s sto- 
mach, which may possibly secrete some peculiar substance, as John Hunter discover! 
that the crop of the pigeon does, 
