PSYCHOLOGICAL PHYSIOLOGY. 



development of the neuter larvae then proceeds, until all are perfected ; 

 when the old female lays male and female eggs in the new or cleansed 

 cells. The neuters are chiefly occupied with feeding the larvae 

 thence disclosed ; they are continually collecting honey, which they 

 convey to the larvae : this honey is also their sole nutriment, for they 

 do not receive pollen, like the larvae of the neuters. More honey is 

 conveyed into the empty cells. These consist, singularly enough, not 

 of wax, but of the web spun by the larvae, which has previously trans- 

 formed into the pupa state within the cell. When this web is com- 

 pleted the workers convey away the wax encompassing it to form new 

 cells, and subsequently use the web as a jar for the honey. Towards 

 the end of the summer the young of both sexes quit the nest, and pair 

 at large ; the males die, but the females return to the nest, where they 

 hybernate in cells prepared by themselves, and filled with moss, and 

 some occupy the succeeding spring the old nest, whilst the remainder 

 go forth to form new ones. The neuters and the hybernating females 

 live in the interim upon the collected honey. 



Many writers speak of smaller females among the humble bees, as 

 well as among the wasps, which only lay male eggs, and which appear 

 either with the neuters or immediately after them. These are evi- 

 dently neuters which have not wholly sacrificed their sexuality, and 

 which are consequently capable of procreation. I doubt whether their 

 existence be absolutely necessary, and also, notwithstanding the uni- 

 form assurance, that they lay only male eggs. Perhaps the female 

 maggots, either as being superfluous or less perfect, by proceeding from 

 a weaker mother, are killed, and only the males reared. Among the 

 bees we also occasionally observe fertile workers, or smaller females. 



298. 



The society of the bees is doubtlessly the most perfect of all, and it 

 differs also in many respects from those already described. It likewise 

 consists of the same members, namely, of males or drones, and females or 

 the queen, and the neuters or workers ; we find a multitude of the first 

 and of the last, but of females only one old one, and, according to the 

 differences of season, two or three young ones. 



The first founding and structure of the nest of a community of bees, 

 which is called the hive, originates indeed with the female, but is 

 executed by the neuters. If, for instance, an old hive be provided in 

 the spring with a multitude of youthful progeny, so numerous that the 



