Saw-flies, Gall-flies, Ichneumons, 
5 2 4 
and honey is put into each cell, which is then capped, i.e., sealed over with 
a thin layer of wax. The larva feeds itself for a day or so longer on the 
“bee-bread” and then pupates in the cell. The quiescent non-feeding 
pupal stage lasts for thirteen days, when the fully developed bee issues from 
the thin pupal cuticle, gnaws away the wax cap and emerges from the cell. 
For from ten days to two weeks the bee does not leave the hive; it busies 
itself with indoor work, particularly nurse work, the feeding and care of 
the young. Then it takes its place with the fully competent bees, makes 
foraging expeditions or undertakes capably any other of the varied indus¬ 
tries of the worker caste. 
After numerous workers have been added to the community, egg-laying 
by the queen going on constantly day after day, so that the young come to 
maturity, not in broods, but consecutively, day after day, certain hexagonal 
cells of plainly larger diameter are made by the comb-building workers, and 
in these the queen lays unfertilized eggs. This extraordinary capacity for 
producing either fertilized or unfertilized eggs, as demanded, depends upon 
the queen’s control of the male fertilizing cells held in the spermatheca. 
This reservoir of fertilising cells can be kept open as eggs pass down the ovi¬ 
duct and by it on their way out of the body, thus allowing the spermatozoids 
to swim out, penetrate (through the micropyle in the egg-envelopes) and 
fertilize the eggs, or it may be kept closed, preventing the issuance of the 
spermatozoids and, consequently, fertilization. From the unfertilized eggs 
laid in the larger cells hatch larvae which are fed and cared for in the same 
way as the worker larvae, but which require six days for full growth, the 
pupal stage lasting fifteen days. When finally the fully developed bees 
issue from these cells it will be found that all are males (drones). This 
parthenogenetic production of drones, discovered about 1840 by Dzierzon, 
and long accepted as proved, was recently questioned by Dickel and one 
or two other naturalists and was therefore reinvestigated by Petrunkewitsch 
and others, with the result of confirming, on new evidence and by new 
methods of investigation, the declarations of the discoverer of the fact. 
If, now, our community has increased so largely in numbers that its 
quarters begin to be insufficient for further expansion, certain excited groups 
of workers will be seen tearing down certain cells and replacing them by a new 
giant cell which is usually built up around one of the fertilized eggs laid in a 
small hexagonal cell. The egg hatches before the cell is finished, and the 
larva lies in the large open cavity of the growing cell, on which numerous 
nurses are in constant attendance. Often several of these unusual giant 
cells may be built at one time. The larva which hatches from the fertilized 
egg in one of these cells is fed the nutritious bee-jelly through all of its life, 
little or no pollen or honey being given it. When the larva is five days 
old a quantity of the milky semi-fluid jelly is put into the cell, which is then 
