Note 761 — LETTER XIV.
Reading edition
Mon. Ap. Angl. i. 173. Apis. **. c. 2. α. From later observations I am inclined to think that these cells may possibly, as in the case of the humble-bee, be in fact formed by the larva previously to becoming a pupa, after having eaten the provision of pollen and honey with which the parent bee had surrounded it. The vermicular shape, however, of the masses with which the cases are surrounded, does not seem easily reconcileable with this supposition, unless they are considered as the excrement of the larva.