Larva, pupa, and adult of a Leaf Beetle (Galeruca).
OUR COMMON INSECTS.
CHAPTER I.
THE HOME OF THE BEES.
The history of the Honey bee, its wonderful instincts, its elaborate cells and complex economy, have engrossed the attention of the best observers, even from the time of Virgil, who sang of the Ligurian bee. The literature of the art of bee-keeping is already very extensive. Numerous bee journals and manuals of bee-keeping testify to the importance of this art, while able mathematicians have studied the mode of formation of the hexagonal cells,[1] and physiologists have investigated the intricate problems of the mode of generation and development of the bee itself.
In discussing these difficult questions, we must rise from the study of the simple to the complex, remembering that—