AND THE CHILDREN 
13 
except the queen die in the fall. In the spring the 
queen awakens from her long sleep and immediately 
searches for some place in which to live. She generally 
selects the abandoned nest of a field-mouse, which this is. 
Sometimes gopher-holes or openings under stumps are 
selected. She then gathers a little honey and pollen and 
lays her eggs. They are all laid together in one mass 
and covered with the pollen and honey. It is hard to tell 
just how long it takes them to hatch. The several 
changes, (of which more hereafter), which take place in 
the hatching of all insects, seem to be so gradual in the 
Humble-bee that it is hard to tell where one begins and 
the other ends. 
As soon as the little bees, which now have the shape 
and appearance of a grub, are so that they can move, they 
eat the pollen that is around them. They now grow very 
fast and separate, each making large cavities in the 
pollen mass. When they are full-grown, each spins a 
silken wall about it, somewhat as the larva of a butter¬ 
fly does. This wall the old bees make stronger by cover¬ 
ing it with a thin coating of wax. 
The grubs are called larvcz , one is called a larva . 
The larvae now change to another stage, called the 
pupa. 
You have seen the pupa of butterflies and moths 
