NEUTER INSECTS. 471 



on, and hence that there is no other explanation of their existence than 

 that they are specially created that is, created in opposition to law. 



To simplify the initial inquiry, we will suppose that workers differ 

 from females only in that they are not fertile, the secondary differ- 

 ences being reserved for discussion toward the end of this paper. 



That a creature may develop, it is essential that it be supplied with 

 a sufficiency of food. Even with human beings food is all-important ; 

 if with these a sufficiency of mineral ingredients be not assimilated, we 

 have the disease called rickets insufficiency of vegetable food will 

 cause scurvy ; insufficient nutriment dwarfs the body and mind gener- 

 ally. The growing body must have enough material out of which to 

 elaborate tissue, or the tissue, muscle, nerve, bone, can not develop. 

 Now let it be supposed there are two larvae or grubs of the bee, which 

 under similar conditions will reach similar degrees of development ; 

 further suppose that one larva, which may be called A, receives an 

 over-abundance of food, while the other larva, which may be called B, 

 receives a quantity of food just sufficient for its more important wants, 

 what will happen ? The larva A will reach its full development it 

 will be a queen-bee ; the larva B, on the other hand, not having food 

 enough for all its wants, and furthermore having within a given time 

 to change its conditions, it must use the nutriment for the building up 

 of its more important organs, must work it up into tissues and struc- 

 tures that are essential to all bees. Its head, body, legs, and wings 

 must be perfected before its reproductive system ; the individual must 

 profit before the race ; and, if the food is only sufficient for individual 

 functions, the race functions must suffer, the reproductive system 

 must remain in an incipient state. 



This conclusion is no mere theory, for among the higher animals, 

 and even with man himself, insufficient nourishment first produces its 

 effects on the reproductive system. Loss of blood induces abortion ; 

 badly prepared or insufficient food decreases or entirely checks the 

 production of offspring. The distinction first clearly formulated by 

 Dr. Carpenter is now a commonplace of science : " There is a certain 

 degree of antagonism between the nutritive and reproductive func- 

 tions, the one being executed at the expense of the other. The repro- 

 ductive apparatus derives the materials of its operations through the 

 nutritive system, and is entirely dependent on it for the continuance 

 of its functions. It may be universally observed that, when the nutri- 

 tive functions are particularly active in supporting the individual, the 

 reproductive system is in a corresponding degree undeveloped, and 

 vice versa.'''' 



With bees the effects produced by food are clearly shown : a larva 

 which otherwise would turn into a neuter is supplied with a different 

 kind of food and it is converted into a queen. Huber obtained queen- 

 bees by placing some of the " royal food " in cells inhabited by the larva? 

 of workers. Kleine performed the same experiment, placed a portion 



