GENERAL HISTORY OF BEES. 
21 
bread, must inevitably lead to the conclusion that the 
larvse of bees require more than honey for their suste¬ 
nance. Nature is not usually wantonly wasteful of its 
resources, and if honey sufficed for the nurture of the 
grub, so much pollen would not be abstracted from its 
legitimate purpose, nor would bees have this double 
trouble given to them. By the admixture of pollen the 
honey has energetic power infused into it by the sper¬ 
matozoa which that contains. But it must necessarily 
be collected, for I never observed, nor have I seen re¬ 
corded, any instance of the pollen being eaten on the 
flower and regurgitated into the cell in combination 
with the imbibed honey. 
Pollen is eaten by the domestic bee and humble-bee 
to form wax for the structure of their cells, but the so¬ 
litary bees do not themselves consume it. 
The larva, when excluded from the egg, is a fleshy 
b 
Fig. 2.— a, the Larva, when growing ; b, when preparing to change; 
c, the head, viewed in front. 
grub, slightly curved, and a little pointed at each extre¬ 
mity. Its body is transversely constricted, the con¬ 
strictions corresponding with its fifteen segments, each 
of which, excepting the head and four terminal ones, is 
supplied with a spiracle placed at the sides, whereby it 
breathes; and it has no feet. These segments have on 
each side a series of small tubercles, which facilitate the 
restricted motions of the grub, confined to the bounda- 
