‘he vei i$ EF: @ Roy 
_ After the Worms of Bees have brought their 
webs to this degree of perfection, the working 
Bees have new bufinefs, for it is then incum- 
bent on them to cover with wax all thefe cafes 
which are arched as it were over the head of 
the Worm, and confequently to feal up the 
Worm itfelf with the greateft circum{pection 
and exactnefs in its cell. This cafe feems to 
me to be altogether neceflary, for if the web 
was not covered and fealed up above with wax, 
it might poffibly be prefled in by the Bees run- 
ning up and down thereon, and confequently 
the {ubjacent young and tender members of the 
Worms which caift their skin a little before 
might be injured: befides that, the operculum 
or cover of wax contributes much to preferve 
the heat, by the affiftance of which, both the 
evaporation of the fuperfluous moifture, and the 
fubfequent change of the Nymph into a Bee 
are promoted. The web we have hitherto 
been defcribing has alfo this further ufe, that 
at the time the Bee-Worm changes its skin, 
and difengaging itfelf from the latter, is tranf- 
formed into a Nymph, it is then prevented 
from flipping out of its cell, which might very 
eafily happen if the cells were not covered or 
thus fhut up, as I myfelf have learned from 
experiments. 
thefe Worms about me, which being as it 
were hatched by this heat alone, came to 
that perfection, that the Nymphs affumed the 
form of Bees: I then faw thefe Bees running 
quickly up and down in my box, fo that I 
could not really help admiring what had hap- 
pened: and from this experiment I learned 
one thing, and that is, that I might thus know 
for certain how much time was neceflary for 
the Nymph to grow into a Bee; but I have not 
as yet been able to inveftigate this matter fully, 
being then engaged in other neceflary bufine&. 
I have hitherto only obferved the changes which 
happen under the time of growth, and at the 
fame time I have thus experienced, that heat 
alone will hatch Bees, and the incubation or 
fitting of other Bees is not neceflary, as fome 
authors have feigned. I began the experiments 
juft now mentioned about the end of Septem- 
ber. If the web I have defcribed be cut open 
in that part where the head of the enclofed 
Worm is placed, the Worm afterwards will 
come out of it there, when upon changing its 
skin it is transformed into a Nymph. 
The Worm after it hath covered itfelf with 
this web remains entirely at reft, and does not 
move in the leaft ; it keeps the place which it 
at that time filled, and remains quiet to the 
end of its transformation. But if the diffection 
of the Worm be undertaken at that time, be- 
fides the ceca or clofed veffels before defcribed, 
there alfo appear a great number of very flender 
veffels, which are fituated on the inteftines near 
the pylorus, where the clofed veffels are inferted, 
and feem to me to be of the fame nature with 
thofe veflels which Malpighius calls vafa crocea, 
the faffron coloured veffels in the Silk-Worms. 
At the fame time the ceca or clofed veffels 
I at one time carried fome of 
ae DN SSE @ TS. 49 
themfelves are feen. Whether thefe very de- 
licate veflels are in the Worm from the begin- 
ning, and afterwards only increafe with its 
growth, does not yet appear. But if they be, 
they are much larger in the Bee than they were 
in the Worm: I have never found them of a 
yellow colour in Bees, as I have done in the 
humble Bees. I have fometimes feen the ex= 
crements lie coagulated in thefe veffels in the 
females, and indeed occafionally in the com- 
mon Bees. I find great difficulty to difcover 
the real ufe of thefe clofed veffels, whether 
they fecrete a particular humour in their ca- 
vities, which muft be difcharged out of the 
body, or fuch a liquid as changes the contents 
of the other inteftines ; or are they analogous 
to the ceca which are found in other animals, 
but particularly in Birds and in Rabbits? The 
ufe of the ceca in other animals is not yet fuf- 
ficiently known, yet it ‘is certain that excre- 
ments of the fame with thofe of the great guts 
are found in plenty in them. Had not thefe 
veflels been fo regularly divided into four, and 
had they been of fuch a length, and inferted 
even into the inteftine under the ftomach, one 
would incline to confider whether they did 
not belong to the bladder of poifon of the 
{ting, which I fhall afterwards defcribe in 
the common Bee; but this doubt may be eafily 
folved, if one fhould diffect the Worm of a 
male Bee, The time for getting thefe Worms 
is now paft, fince I am now writing this on 
the firft day of September. 
Further, in this ftate of the Worm the fto- 
mach is much more contracted than it was 
before, and appears like a {mall ent: it is of a 
whitifh colour, and its yellow contents now 
difappear, being totally wafted. We likewife 
obferve, that when that Worm is but a day, or 
half a day older, its {tomach becomes fhorter ; 
but the vafa crocea, or yellow veffels, are much 
{tronger and more vifible. A little below the 
place where the vafa crocea are inferted, the 
great guts may be feen more beautifully than 
in the Worm that is not yet covered in its 
cell. Thefe are joined to the ftomach, and 
now become fomewhat longer, and begin to 
bend or turn themfelves. Behind thefe are feen 
one or two parts fo tender that they cannot be 
accurately examined, 
The fat that is found in the Worm when in 
its web, very eafily feparates from its mem- 
branes: hence it happens that the contracted 
pneumatic veflels become at this time more 
confpicuous. 
The Worm whilft at reft in the manner jut 
mentioned, {wells confiderably about the breaft, 
but not fo much about the head; and after 
this it begins likewife by degrees to grow 
thicker, and to {well out about the fecond and 
third annular incifion: the reafon of this is, 
becaufe the limbs of it which have increafed in- 
wardly, are infenfibly diftended with fluids, 
We likewife here fee the legs and wings, after- 
wards the head, ‘breatt, belly and trunk, and 
finally, the whole form and ftru€ture of the 
Bee 
