30 
BULLETIN 1222, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
nurse bees actually spend within the cell 19.68 per cent of the whole 
time. These figures indicate the unceasing care of the developing 
bees even more than do the data on the number of separate visits 
made to them by tho 
nurse bees. 
Few successive obser- 
vations on individual 
larvae were made, since 
the number of visits and 
the time spent within the 
cells were fairly uniform 
for each age. Occasion- 
ally, where a particu- 
larly small or a partic- 
ularly large total was 
obtained for a certain 
cell in one 10-minute 
period, a second observa- 
tion was made at once. 
Usually in such cases the 
average of two such 
readings was about equal 
to the average per 10- 
minute period for the 
given age. It therefore 
appears that if a cell has 
received more than the 
usual amount of atten- 
tion during one observa- 
tion period of 10 min- 
utes, the nurses during 
the ensuing period de- 
vote less than the aver- 
age amount of attention 
to that particular cell, 
though they may inspect 
it as many or even more 
times than they did dur- 
ing the preceding obser- 
vation period. Likewise 
any slighting of a certain 
cell during one period is 
compensated in a subse- 
quent period by more 
than the average amount 
of attention. 
CHANGE IN FEEDING 
BEHAVIOR. 
Fig. 13. — Showing the relation of average time (sec 
onds) spent in nursing honeybee larvae per 10 
minute period to age. (Table 7.) 
It has long been known 
that the developing larva 
is not fed the same kind of material throughout larval life, it being 
usually believed that the change in the character of the food occurs 
on the fourth day. The data herein recorded show not only that such 
