606 Power of the Common Bee 



declared the working bees to be all virgins, devoted to per- 

 petual chastity. The following, therefore, may be taken as 

 his system : — 



1. 



The Queen. 



2. 3. 



Drones. Working Bees. 



{a) Fruitful. (6) Unfruitful. 



4. 



Drones. 



This system, however, met with very great opposition; for 

 the very circumstance of the alleged existence of a fruitful com- 

 mon bee never procreating, nor producing any of its species, 

 threw the whole system into disrepute, and at once esta- 

 blished its falsity. Nevertheless, it excited considerable sen- 

 sation among the entomologists of the day ; and some of the 

 opponents of Schirach extended their dissent so far as to 

 assert that all the working bees possessed the power of pro- 

 creation ; and they made their appeal to the alleged fact, that 

 hives destitute of their queen will continue the process of 

 breeding, and even produce a brood of drones. It was, how- 

 ever, a part of the theory of Schirach, that the drones origi- 

 nated from some false and corrupted eggs; or, in other 

 words, that they were actual abortions. 



Harold was one of the greatest opponents of Schirach ; and 

 he disseminated the following system : — 



jfi. Working Bees. Mother Bee. 



,: *. /sworf \\ Working Bees. 



8*1.^ , 



(a) Male. {h) Female. 



r 

 3. 



yftT.nn' 'W)M "'tiljd ' inr ■■ Drones. 



'According to this system, Harold maintained that the queen, 

 as the mother bee, copulated with the males, which she sought 

 for amongst the common bees ; and from the eggs which the 

 queen laid proceeded male and female bees. The males per- 

 formed their labours exteriorly to the hive ; that is, they col- 

 lected honey and wax, and copulated with the queen and the 

 female bees. The latter operated on the materials which the 

 males brought into the hive ; they built the cells, took care of 

 the brood, and closed the cells when full of honey : in fact. 



