ME TAMORPHOSIS. 
157 
mandibles (above g)^ and the other mouth parts. 
After these the three pair of legs are developed in 
succession on the thorax, which also disappear on the 
third day. Usually on the third day (although depend- 
ing upon temperature and sometimes delayed), the 
chorion of the egg breaks, and an apodal (footless) 
larva, with thirteen segments, bends and straightens 
itself alternately to get rid of the egg envelope. 
It lies at the base of the cell, slightly curved 
(Fig. I, d), and as it grows forms a complete ring, 
then, when it has no longer room for this position, 
its head is raised above its body, and it assumes 
a vertical posture. The food (prepared as we have 
seen in Chapter xvii.) is given sparingly by the nurse 
bees, and is the same the first three days, during 
which time the larva absorbs it by the mouth, and 
likewise by that portion of the body floating in it. 
It is assimilated in such a manner that the larva passes 
no dejections. After three days the food is changed, 
and now honey and digested pollen are by degrees 
added for those intended as workers; but those in- 
tended for queens are fed abundantly with the same 
kind of food during the whole of their larval exist- 
ence. The drones are also weaned after the fourth 
day by having undigested pollen, as well as honey, 
added to their food. It is a curious facq as we have 
already pointed out above, that before hatching the 
larva presents rudimentary legs, which some suppose 
to indicate atavis7n to an ancestral type of hexapodal 
larvae ; but M. Balbiani ( 48 ) has shown this to be 
incorrect, as in the flea ^the same thing takes place, 
