142 
Journal of Agricultural Research 
Vol. XXVIII, No. 2 
material (Table III, fig. 11). Nelson and Sturtevant {85) and Lineburg {86) 
have shown that the change in the composition of this food comes definitely soon 
after the second day, instead of the fourth day, as stated by Von Planta, after 
which increasingly large amounts of honey and pollen are fed up until the time of 
sealing. The larva is fed during this period about as fast as it can ingest the food. 
From this it is reasonable to suppose that there must be a constant surplus of 
unassimilated food in the larval intestine until after feeding has ceased. 
Table III .—Percentage composition of worker brood food, calculated from Von 
Planta {40), and on the basis of his assumption of 70 per cent water content 
Substance 
Under four days 
Over four days 
Dried 
substance 
Fresh 
substance 
Dried 
substance 
Fresh 
substance 
Nitrogenous *__-... 
Per cent 
53.38 
8.38 
18.09 
Per cent 
16.01 
2.51 
5.43 
Per cent 
27.87 
3.69 
44.93 
Per cent 
8.36 
1.11 
13.48 
Fat ..... 
Glucose........ 
COMPOSITION OF HONEY 
The average chemical analysis of American honeys has been shown by Browne 
{9) to be as follows: Moisture 17.59 per cent, invert sugar 74.41 per cent, sucrose 
1.98 per cent, ash 0.23 per cent, dextrin 2.09 per cent, undetermined 3.70 per 
cent. Approximately the same percentages have been found by all other workers 
in this field. The maximum sucrose content of honey is given in American 
standards for food analysis as 8 per cent, although a few samples have been found 
with a slightly higher sucrose content. In the utilization of honey as food by 
either the adult bee or the larva, it may be assumed that sucrose is rapidly 
hydrolized. In any analysis of the stomach content of the bee larva for sugar 
content, therefore, after the change in larval food has occurred and when honey 
enters directly into its composition, it may safely be assumed that a determination 
of the amount of reducing sugar will indicate the amount of unassimilated sugar 
in the intestine, since there will be but a small additional sugar content from 
sucrose, if any of the latter sugar still remains. In determining the sugar content 
of the whole larva, as was done in most of the present work, it may be assumed 
that there is a comparatively small amount of reducing sugar in the blood stream, 
because of the exceedingly rapid transformation of these sugars into fat and 
glycogen which are known to occur in the bee larva. It is therefore concluded 
that the sugar found in the whole larva is virtually that which occurs in the intes¬ 
tine alone, and this greatly simplifies the work of analysis. 
COMPOSITION OF THE LARVA AT DIFFERENT AGE PERIODS 
The work of Straus {48) on the chemical composition of the worker and drone 
brood during their different developmental stages gives the results of the metabo¬ 
lism of this food, as indicated by the presence of fat and glycogen stored in the 
so-called fat body of the larva (Table IV, fig. 12). He was unable to demon¬ 
strate more than a trace of what he terms reducing substances, except in one 
case in which only a slight amount was found. He believes that this is because 
the sugar of the larval food is assimilated so rapidly, as is indicated in the larval 
composition by the exceedingly rapid increase in the amount of glycogen and 
fat until after feeding has ceased. 
