NATURAL HISTORY: ig 
be piit in among them, the is immediately acknowledged for queen. 
The life of all the reft, is nothing in comparifon of her’s. They do her 
all manner of fervices, and pay her all the homage, that is due from 
Ubje&s to a fovercign; for fhe never goes abroad, without a numerous 
Suard; they kéep her body clean with their triinks, and follow her 
Wherever fhe goes. When after her death the Bees continue in a {tate 
Of perfect idlenefs; if another queen is prefented them, they immedi- 
ately apply to their labour again. Iii {hort the life of the reft of the 
Sees depends upon that of the queen, for in a few days after her deathg 
they will all foffer therofelves to die with hunger. 
The working Bees are always very provident in providing cells fot 
the young; and they will leave off their common employm.nt, to con- 
tua proper receptacles for the eggs. ‘They build putpofely, little 
Sells, of a roundifh oblong fhape, and extremely folid, and they empioy 
8reat plenty of wax in this work. ‘This polition is greatly different 
tom that of the other combs; thefe fort of Bees, know, or at leaft ap- 
Pear to know what number of eggs the queen lays in a year, from 
Whence proceed other females, that give birth to feveral thoutands of the 
Working Bees, and feveral hundred males. Sometimes they do not lay 
bur three or four at firft, and fometimes none at all; but in this latt 
fafe, the hives produce no fwarms. The fecundity of this Bee is fuch, 
that in feven or eight weeks time, fhe will produce 1c or 12000 Bees 
and upwards. Generally fpeaking, fhe lays but one egg in each celly | 
€caufe it would not be fuficient to hatch any more. In two or three 
“ays time, according to the heat of the weather, the egg will appear 
atched at the bottom of the cell. _ It has the appearance of a kind of a 
Maggot, which is always white, and placed in the fame attitude, that 
's, rolled up like a ring, lying foftly in a bed of a kind of gelly, of a 
Whitifh colours and this is what the brood feeds upon. Vhe common © 
ees are a kind of nurfes to the brood, and have greater affeCtion for it, 
an the hired nurfes among mankind. They take care in vifiting each 
Cell, and in examining whether any thing is wanting. ‘They are fed 
With honey and wax, prepared in the bodies of the Bees; and in lefs 
an fix days time, the worm comes to its full growth. When the Bees 
Perceive that the worms have no farther occafion for feeding, they fhut 
Nem up in their lodgings, and wall them up, if the expreflion may 
© allowed, with wax. Then the worm continuing in a ftate of per- 
&& rett, begins to grow larger, and lines the walls of the cell with 
fitken tapeftry, which they fpin in the fame manner as Caterpillars, be- 
re they undergo their laft transformation. But itis obfervable, that 
© Bees bring them more nourifhment than they are able to confume. 
i efore they {pin their covering, they eat up all their provifion of gelly, 
Saving the bottom of the cell clean and dry. Ina day’s time, or long- 
®t, they obtain their full growth, and then they caft off their fkins, 
“Dich ferved them in their worm ftate, and become an Aurelia Nymph. 
*hé worms that produce Drones, are of the fame fize as thofe of the 
Working Bees. Thefe lat take care of them with the fame application 5 
and it may well be imagined, that they are not. lefs attentive to thofe 
ich are to be metamorphofed into female Bees; for it has been 
fected, that they fupply them with nourifhment, in greater pros 
10n; . y 
P : Wher 
