Metamorphosis in the honeybee

Histological changes which occur in the digestive system and its appendages and in the muscular system of the honeybee during metamorphosis are described. Some attention is given to changes which take place in the fat‐body, the silk‐glands, and the reproductive system. Material of known ages was used. Observations began with the sealing of the larva in its cell and were concluded with the young bee ready to emerge from its cell. Soon after the larva is sealed in its cell, the body tissues begin to undergo a change. Larval epithelial cells lining the midgut are cast into the lumen and they are replaced by cells which proliferate from the imaginal or ‘replacement’ cells. In the fore‐ and hindgut the lining of the larval cells is replaced by imaginal cells whose points of origin are probably at the anterior and posterior ends, respectively, of the midgut. While the imaginal lining is being formed, the opening from the midgut into the hindgut is closed by a small portion of tissue. A part of the larval muscles are histolyzed and then re‐formed from imaginal myoblasts, other larval muscles disappear entirely. The strictly imaginal muscles (e.g., leg muscles) are formed by myoblasts which congregate at the point of muscle formation. There is no evidence of phagocytosis in the honeybee during metamorphosis.