_b_ and _c_--Eggs. _d, e, f_ and _g_--Various sizes of larvæ. _h_--Pupa. _i_--Pupa of queen, in queen-cell. _k, k_--Caps. ] The egg hatches in three days. The larva (Fig. 26, _d, e, f, g_), incorrectly called grub, maggot--and even caterpillar, by Hunter--is white, footless, and lies coiled up in the cell till near maturity. It is fed a whitish fluid, though this seems to be given grudgingly, as it never seems to have more than it wishes to eat, so it is fed quite frequently by the mature workers. It would seem that the workers fear an excessive development, which, as we have seen, is most mischievous and ruinous, and work to prevent the same, by a mean and meager diet. The food is composed of pollen and honey. Certainly of pollen, for, as I have repeatedly proved, without pollen, no brood will be reared. Probably some honey is incorporated, as sugar is an essential in the nutrition of all animals, and we could hardly account for the excessive amount of honey consumed, while breeding, by the extra amount consumed by the bees, consequent upon the added exercise required in caring for the brood. M. Quinby, Doolittle, and others, say water is also an element of this food. But bees often breed very rapidly when they do not leave the hive at all, and so water, other than that contained in the honey, etc., cannot be added. This makes it a question if water is ever added. The time when bees seem to need water, and so repair to the rill and the pond, is during the heat of summer, when they are most busy. May this not be quaffed to slake their own thirst? In six days the cell is capped over by the worker-bees. This cap is composed of pollen and wax, so it is darker, more porous, and more easily broken than the caps of the honey-cells; it is also more convex (Fig. 26, _k_). The larva, now full grown, having lapped up all the food placed before it, surrounds itself with a silken cocoon, so excessively thin that it requires a great number to appreciably reduce the size of the cells. These always remain in the cell, after the bees, escape, and give to old comb its dark color and great strength. Yet they are so thin, that cells used even for a dozen years, seem to serve as well for brood as when first used. In three days the insect assumes the pupa state (Fig. 26, _h_). In all insects the spinning of the cocoon seems an exhaustive process, for so far as I have observed, and that is quite at length, this act is succeeded by a variable period of repose. The pupa is also called a nymph. By cutting open cells it is easy to determine just the date of forming the cocoon, and of changing to the pupa state. The pupa looks like the mature bee with all its appendages bound close about it, though the color is still whitish: