158 
ME TAMORPHOSIS. 
and the legs disappear. The larva (Fig. 57, g) is 
white, with a head slightly coloured, and having tw6 
little darker points for eyes. When the larvae have 
grown to their full size after several moults, feeding 
ceases, the cells are sealed over, the cocoon is spun 
by means of the silk proceeding from the silk glands, 
which later change to the salivary glands (systems 
II. and III.) in the mature insect. After the 
cocoon is completed, which generally takes about 
thirty-six hours for the worker and twenty-four for 
the queen, the larva rests for a time, and then gra- 
dually changes into a chrysalis, or nymph. Now 
wonderful transformations take place. The mouth 
organs begin to form ; the head, at first embedded 
in the thorax, separates; the constriction between 
head and thorax becomes more pronounced, and 
another constriction is formed between the thorax 
and abdomen. Little prominences appear gradually, 
forming the legs, antennae, and tongue, which is ex- 
tended along the body (Fig. 57, f). The wings also, at 
first hardly visible, folded round the thorax towards 
the legs, and the rudiments of the sting and male 
organs in the drone make their appearance. The com- 
pound eyes are white at first, but soon all the organs 
begin to acquire colour. The abdomen takes its shape, 
and in the queen and worker carries the sting at the 
extremity, at first on the outside. Then the whole 
body begins to colour, and the anal segments turn in 
to the preceding ones, so that the sting is now placed 
inside. Swammerdam (158) and Newport have very 
graphically described all these transformations. 
