56 NATURAL HISTORY. [CH. III. 



took place in the first fifteen days of a queen's life, 

 the regular series of eggs was deposited ; but if de- 

 layed beyond the twenty-second day, the queen laid 

 only the eggs of males for the rest of her life. Now, 

 it must be remembered that, in the natural state, 

 she must have been at least eleven months old be- 

 fore male eggs could be laid, and yet it appears that, 

 simply by retarding fecundation twenty-two days, 

 she begins immediately to bring forth male eggs ; 

 of this extraordinary fact no satisfactory explana- 

 tion has been hitherto given. The instinct of the 

 queen seems affected by the delay; for although, 

 when fecundation has not been retarded, she never 

 fails to deposite the different sorts of eggs in their 

 proper cells ; when it has, she lays them indiscrimi- 

 nately in any cells. The workers too are puzzled ; 

 for in the natural state they can accurately distin- 

 guish between the different kinds of eggs, and they 

 never fail to give a peculiar covering to the male 

 cells ; but when the impregnation of the queen hap- 

 pens to have been retarded, they feed the worms 

 of drones, deposited in a royal cell, as if they were 

 royal worms. 



The royal cells differ essentially from the others, 

 both in form and position ; they are not placed hori- 

 zontally like the other cells, but vertically, and re- 

 semble a pear with the small end downwards. When 

 the queen lays in them, they are like the cup 

 of an acorn ; after this they are modelled to the py- 

 riform shape, and quite closed up. In the construc- 

 tion of these cells, the bees seem to lose sight of 

 their customary habits of economy ; no expenditure 

 of materials is considered too great ; no space ne- 

 cessary for the accommodation of the future queen 

 is grudged. More wax is expended in constructing 

 the cradle of the infant queen, than would suffice to 

 build one hundred or one hundred and fifty ordinary 

 cells ; and no labour is spared in rendering it com- 

 pact and solid. 



