APIS. 335 



a new queen is produced upon one being supplied with 

 a certain nutriment that developes the capacity that 

 would remain inert and abortive, were it not thus pro- 

 moted from its primary state. It may be questioned 

 whether the eggs deposited by the queen in the royal 

 cells are other than neuter eggs, their subsequent nature 

 being changed by the different quality of the sustenance 

 they are fed with when hatched, as is the case in the 

 above noticed defection of a queen. This then would 

 limit the queen's eggs to the eggs of neuters and of 

 drones, thus further corroborating the idea of the exis- 

 tence of but two sexes. 



I have stated above the supposition that the queen's 

 office may be restricted to the laying of eggs, but it must 

 be inferred that it has a wider compass, and possibly com- 

 prises some administrative function in the regulation of 

 the hive, from the circumstance that with her loss the 

 entire community loses its self-possession and self-con- 

 trol. Labour then ceases and the hive becomes the scene 

 of turmoil and confusion, and unless the loss be repaired 

 in the way named above, which their instinct teaches 

 them to adopt, if any eggs have been already deposited, or 

 if supplied by the surreptitious introduction of another 

 queen which they immediately raise to their superinten- 

 dency, paying her the same deference they had done to 

 their lost monarch, or would do to a legitimately native 

 birth, it disperses and destroys the community. Such a 

 loss in its natural course must necessarily, to be effec- 

 tively repaired, take place in the interval after the laying 

 of the drones' eggs, and before those of the queens are 

 deposited, for otherwise she would remain unimpreg- 

 nated. Having thus shown reasons for supposing that 

 the hive actually contains but two sexes, and having also 



