Clan Apis 
Chapter One: Transitions
  
The Story       


 In the opening chapter of Clan Apis we meet Nyuki and her sister Dvorah. Nyuki is a larva and Dvorah is preparing her for metamorphosis. But Nyuki isn't very happy that her lap-o-luxury life as a larva is about to end. Especially when Dvorah tells her that metamorphosis will radically reorganize her body!
The Science: the following topics are covered within the context of the story.      

  • Invertebrates (and insects in particular) were on land and evolving long before vertebrates crawled out of the sea.
  • Insects comprise half of all animals on the planet.
  • A brief overview of the early jobs a worker performs in the hive (e.g cleaning and capping brood cells).
  • How a queen lays an egg.
  • Bee larva don't have eyes (see above) or much of anything else except a mouth and a gut.
  • The prodigious growth of larva prior to metamorphosis. 
  • What larva are fed as they grow.
  • How a larva spins a cocoon and the materials it uses.
  • The internal cellular changes that occur to rearrange muscles and internal organs during metamorphosis.
  • Cuticular hardening and the importance of eating pollen for newly emerged adults.
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