ruLYMORl'IHSM. 105 



containing an enzyme may be administered by some ants, at least to 

 their younger larvae, the case against the morphogenic effects of quali- 

 tative feeding is not materially altered, as we see from the following 

 considerations : 



3. In incipient ant-colonies the queen mother takes no food often 

 for as long a period as eight or nine months, and during all this time 

 is compelled to feed her first brood of larvae exclusively on the secre- 

 tions of her salivary glands. This diet, which is purely qualitative, 

 though very limited in quantity, produces only workers and these of an 

 unusually small size ( micrergates ). 



4, In the honey-bees, on the other hand, qualitative feeding, namely 

 with a secretion, the so-called " royal jelly," which according to some 

 authors (Schiemenz) is derived from the salivary glands, according to 

 others ( Planta ) from the chylific stomach of the nurses, does not pro- 

 duce workers, but queens. In this case, however, the food is adminis- 

 tered in considerable quantity, and is not provided by a single starving 

 mother, as in the case of the ants, but by a host of vigorous and well- 

 fed nurses. Although it has been taken for granted that the fertilized 

 honey-bee becomes a queen as the result of this peculiar diet, the matter 

 appears in a different light when it is considered in connection with 

 von Ihering's recent observations on the stingless bees (Meliponidae ) 

 of South America (1903). He has shown that in the species of 

 Melipona the cells in which the males, queens and workers are reared 

 are all of the same size. These cells are provisioned with the same 

 kind of food (honey and pollen) and an egg is laid in each of them. 

 Thereupon they are sealed up, and although the larvae are not fed from 

 day to day, as in the honey-bees, but like those of the solitary bees 

 subsist on stored provisions, this uniform treatment nevertheless re- 

 sults in the production of three sharply differentiated castes. On 

 hatching the queen Melipona has very small ovaries with immature 

 eggs, but in the allied genus Trigona, the species of which differ 

 from the Melipona in constructing large queen cells and in storing 

 them with a greater quantity of honey and pollen, the queen hatches 

 with her ovaries full of ripe eggs. These facts indicate that the large 

 size of the queen cell and its greater store of provisions are merely 

 adaptations for accelerating the development of the ovaries. Now on 

 reverting to the honey-bee we may adopt a similar explanation for the 

 feeding of the queen larva with a special secretion like the "royal 

 jelly." As is well known, the queen honey-bee hatches in about sixteen 

 days from the time the egg is laid, while the worker, though a smaller 

 insect and possessing imperfect ovaries, requires four or five day : 

 more to complete her development. That the special feeding of the 



