22 



THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



some species is developed into an elongated 

 pair of feelers or maxillary palpi. The larvae 

 of this order are furnished with scaly heads, 

 and very powerful jaws ; they have also six 

 short scaly legs attached in pairs to the three 

 segments succeeding the head, and a variable 

 number (never exceeding 12) of short thick 

 fleshy legs attached in pairs to the hinder 

 segments of the body. They feed almost 

 without exception, upon vegetable matter. 

 The pupa is enclosed in a hard, shelly case, 

 the form of which is extreemly variable. 



The most important feature in which the 

 Lepidoptera differ from all other orders is 

 the scaly formation of the wings, as mentioned 

 above ; the Hymenoptera (Saw-fties, Wasps, 

 &c.) having the wings membranous and 

 without hairs, whilst the Neuroptera (Stone- 

 fties, Dragon-flies, &c.) have them traversed 

 by a great quantity of nervures, dividing them 

 into a larger number of spaces or cells, than 

 is the case, with any other insects, and so on. 

 The larvae and puppe of the order Orthoptera 

 (Cockroaches, Crickets, &c.) resemble the 

 imago in shape, but have no wings, and the 

 pupae are as active as the larva or perfect 

 insect, therein essentially differing from the 

 larvae and pupae of the Lepidoptera, which bear 

 no resemblance whatever to the perfect insect. 

 The mouth of the Lepidopterous larva differs 

 from that of the imago, as shown above, 

 whilst in all other orders, the mouth in the 

 larval state closely resembles that of the per- 

 fect insect. Thus I have shown that the 

 order Lepidoptera dffers in various ways 

 from the orders, Hymenoptera, Neuroptera, 

 and Orthoptera, and upon careful examina- 

 tion it may be found that it differs in some 

 respect from every other order of insects. — 

 "John Peel." 



. We will now ask for a paper of a rather 

 different character, and one which we think 

 will not only be interesting, but found of 

 service to house-holders — i.e. for the best 

 essay on the life history of the Cockroach 

 (Blatta orientalis), with suggestions for its 

 extermination. The replies as before to be 



confined to four sheets of note paper and to 

 be in our hands by November 27th. 



A PAPER ON APIS 

 MELLIFIC A. 



THE HONEY BEE. 

 By the Rev. G. C. B. Madden, Huddersfield. 

 Continued from page 11. 



In the swarm you will find three different 

 forms of Bees. The smaller insect is the 

 imperfect female, which does all the work of 

 the hive, such as repairs, providing food, and 

 nourishing the young, of these there are 

 many thousands. Then you will notice some 

 large and coarsely made bees, who make a 

 very loud hum when they fly, they are the 

 drones, or males, of which there may be 

 from one hundred to one or two thousand, 

 and if you are fortunate enough you may see 

 an elegant looking insect, with a very long 

 body, about whom a number of workers 

 always cluster, this is the Queen, or Mother 

 Bee, a perfect female. Let me briefly 

 describe the life history of each of these. 



1 . The ^Torker- — The ova is laid by 

 the Queen in a worker cell, and is a small 

 white object, much longer than broad. (?) It is 

 placed at the bottom of the cell, generally a 

 little towards one side, for three days it con- I 

 tinues in that stage, when a small white grub 

 is hatched, which is immediately supplied I 

 with a specially prepared food by the nurses. I 

 This grub rapidly grows, until on the sixth 

 day after hatching it spins itself a white silken I 

 cocoon ; and the Worker Bees seal over the ^ 

 end of the cell with honey and pollen. En- I 

 closed in its tomb it gradually assumes the I ^ 

 form of the perfect insect, and when twelve J ( 

 more days are over, it gnaws its way out, and; ^ 

 appears on the comb, a perfect worker. Thus ^ 

 the Worker Bee takes twenty-one days to t - 

 undergo its transformations. Its life varies ' ; 

 in length. In the height of summer, when it ^ 

 works day and night, it only lives about six 1 

 weeks, but in the winter it will live six or fc 



