116 



PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



which had been deprived of their queen, at first destroyed 

 some of the grubs in these cells ; but they clustered around 

 two that were covered in, as if to impart warmth to the pupae 

 they contained ; and on the following day they began to 

 work upon the portions of comb with which he had supplied 

 them, in order to fix and lengthen them. For two or three 

 days the work went on very leisurely, but afterwards their 

 labours assumed their usual character of indefatigable in- 

 dustry. 1 There is no difficulty, therefore, when a hive loses 

 its sovereign, to supply the bees with an object that will in- 

 terest them, and keep their works in progress. 



There are a few other facts with respect to the larvse and 

 pupse of the bees, which, before I enter upon the history of 

 them in their perfect form, I shall now detail to you. Six- 

 teen days is the time assigned to a queen for her existence in 

 her preparatory states, before she is ready to emerge from her 

 cell. Three she remains in the egg ; when hatched she con- 

 tinues feeding five more ; when covered in she begins to spin 

 her cocoon, which occupies another day ; as if exhausted by 

 this labour, she now remains perfectly still for two days and 

 sixteen hours ; and then assumes the pupa, in which state she 

 remains exactly four days and eight hours — making in all 

 the period I have just named. A longer time, by four days, 

 is required to bring the workers to perfection ; their pre- 

 paratory states occupying twenty days, and those of the male 

 even twenty-four. The former consumes half a day more 

 than the queen in spinning its cocoon, — a circumstance most 

 probably occasioned by a singular difference in the structure 

 and dimensions of this envelop, which I shall explain to you 

 presently. Thus you see that the peculiar circumstances 

 which change the form and functions of a bee accelerate its ap- 

 pearance as a perfect insect ; and that by choosing a grub three 

 days old, when the bees want a queen, they actually gain six 

 days ; for in this ease she is ready to come forth in ten days, 

 instead of sixteen, which would be required was a recently 

 laid egg fixed upon. 2 



1 Reaum. v. 271. 



2 Huber, i. 215. Schirach asserts, that in cold weather the disclosure of the 

 imago takes place two days later than in warm ; and Riem, that in a bad season 

 the eggs will remain in the cells many months without hatching. (Schirach, 79. 

 241.) 



