CREATION BY EVOLUTION
it with pollen, usually mixed with honey, deposits an egg, covers the cell in, and leaves the young larva to eat up the food provided. The grub or larva then turns into a pupa, from which emerges the active adult insect, which makes its way out into the world. The next stage higher is shown in Fig. 17.
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Fig. 16.—A single cell of a solitary bee made in the ground. The egg is deposited on a mass of pollen and honey and the cell is closed in. Fig. 17.—A series of cells side by side but well separated from one another. These cells have a common passage indicated by the arrow, and the whole are surrounded by a common envelope. This is the first indication of a comb. Fig. 18.—A row of cells of a solitary bee, such as the carpenter-bee. They are touching end to end. Fig. 19.—A number of simple cells such as are found in the hive of the bumble-bee. They just touch one another, but have not really fused together, and there is no common wall separating them. The cells are really independent and are all made of pure wax. |
The cells are placed side by side or end to end, as are those of the leaf-cutting bee or the carpenter-bee; but each individual cell of both these bees is furnished with food and an egg and then left alone. The young bee does not
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