CREATION BY EVOLUTION
is passing in and out, and by night the honey-pot may be quite empty of its thin and watery contents. In about four days the larvae hatch out as whitish grubs and begin to feed upon the pollen bed upon which they have been lying. At first they feed upon any mixed pollen and honey provided by the queen. As they grow older they are individually and compulsorily fed.
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In a week the grub-like larvae turn into chrysalids and spin about their bodies a thin, papery, but tough cocoon. The queen now removes what is left of the waxen cell, and the pale little cocoons stand on their ends like mummies. The outer rows are taller than those in the centre, and in the groove thus formed the queen lies brooding over the pupae, which hatch out on the eleventh day, when the complete female working bumble-bees step out into the darkness (Fig. 15). At first they are weak and tottery, yet they manage to make their way to the honey-pot and take a deep draught of the thin fluid before returning to safety beneath the body of the mother; but in two days they grow up and begin to help in the work of the nest. They start collecting pollen and honey as a store of food for the second and later broods of larvae, for the queen is now laying batches of eggs every few days. In fact, the second batch of larvae is ready for the attention of the lately hatched first batch. In the hive of the honey-bee the workers do not set about gathering food till they are two weeks old, but in the home of the bumble-bee this task is undertaken by the workers at the
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