We represent (Fig. 320) a portion of a comb containing the eggs placed in the cells, as also the royal cells. The regular order of laying is such as we have just described, but the result is quite different when the impregnation of the queen has been retarded by an accidental captivity of two or three weeks. The longer this delay, the greater will be the number of male eggs. If the queen is shut up for more than twenty days after her birth, she can then lay nothing but male eggs during the remainder of her existence. It seems, also, that this delay troubles her intellect; for she then often makes blunders as to the cells. She lays the eggs of the males, or drones, in the cradles prepared for the queens, and thus brings confusion into the future community. The eggs, once laid, are left to the care of the working bees, which Réaumur called the nurses, in opposition to the wax-workers, which are employed in works of construction. According to many bee-keepers, and especially M. Hamet,[87] this division of duties is not positive. The young workers are the wax-workers; the old ones, collectors of honey, and nurses. However, when the honey-harvest is at its height, all the workers collect the spoil. Every individual is pressed into the service at the harvest time, as with men. [87] "Cours d'Apiculture." In 8vo. Paris, 1864. [Illustration: Fig. 320.--Portion of the comb, with the eggs occupying the cells. One of the royal cells has been opened by the queen.] The eggs are not long in being hatched. From the moment when the larva comes out of the egg till that of its metamorphosis into a pupa, it keeps in its cell, rolled up, motionless as an Indian idol in its sacred temple. The working bees visit it from time to time, to see that it wants for nothing, and to renew its provisions. They also carefully inspect the different cells, and assure themselves of the good condition of their nurslings. The pap which they give them as food is whitish, and resembles paste made of flour. It is apparently a preparation of pollen, prepared in the body of the insect. As the larvæ increase in size, their food is made to acquire a more decided taste of honey, and to become even slightly acid. It seems, then, that the bees know how to graduate the food of their larvæ in such a manner as to bring it nearer by degrees to honey. In the space of five days the larvæ are developed; they have absorbed all their pap, and have no need from that time of any nourishment, for they are about now to change into pupæ. Now the nurses pay them a last attention. They wall them up in their cells, closing the openings with a waxen covering. The larvæ then get close to the wax covering. In thirty-six hours they have spun for themselves a silky cocoon, in which they undergo their transformation into pupæ. The moult, which precedes their metamorphosis, constitutes a crisis, as with the caterpillars of Lepidoptera. [Illustration: Fig. 321.--Larva of the Bee (magnified).]