much more difficult to approach this royal founder without disturbing her than it is the worker-bees that carry on similar occupations at a subsequent period in the history of the {55}society. The larvae in the first cell, as they increase in size, apparently distend the cell in an irregular manner, so that it becomes a knobbed and rugged, truffle-like mass. The same thing happens with the other cells formed by the queen. Each of these larval masses contains, it should be noticed, sister-larvae all of one age; when full grown they pupate in the mass, and it is worthy of remark that although all the eggs in one larval mass were laid at the same time, yet the larvae do not all pupate simultaneously, neither do all the perfect Insects appear at once, even if all are of one sex. The pupation takes place in a cocoon that each larva forms for itself of excessively fine silk. The first broods hatched are formed chiefly, if not entirely, of workers, but small females may be produced before the end of the season. Huber and Schmiedeknecht state that though the queen provides the worker-cells with food before the eggs are placed therein, yet no food is put in the cells in which males and females are produced. The queen, at the time of pupation of the larvae, scrapes away the wax by which the cocoons are covered, thus facilitating the escape of the perfect Insect, and, it may also be, aiding the access of air to the pupa. The colony at first grows very slowly, as the queen can, unaided, feed only a small number of larvae. But after she receives the assistance of the first batch of workers much more rapid progress is made, the queen greatly restricting her labours, and occupying herself with the laying of eggs; a process that now proceeds more and more rapidly, the queen in some cases scarcely ever leaving the nest, and in others even becoming incapable of flight. The females produced during the intermediate period of the colony are smaller than the mother, but supplement her in the process of egg-laying, as also do the workers to a greater or less extent. The conditions that determine the egg-laying powers of these small females and workers are apparently unknown, but it is ascertained that these powers vary greatly in different cases, so that if the true queen die the continuation of the colony is sometimes effectively carried on by these her former subordinates. In other cases, however, the reverse happens, and none of the inhabitants may be capable of producing eggs: in this event two conditions may be present; either larvae may exist in the nest, or they may be absent. In the former case the workers provide them with food, and the {56}colony may thus still be continued; but in the latter case, there being no profitable occupation for the bees to follow, they spend the greater part of the time sitting at home in the nest.