84 GENERAL ZOOLOGY 



in it. Finally, as everyone knows, they are the defenders of 

 the hive, and by their great numbers and formidable stings 

 they constitute a bodyguard of no mean pretensions. 



The name "queen bee" is misleading, if it suggests any 

 control or management of the affairs of the hive. She is care- 

 fully guarded by the workers, but that is on account of her 

 importance to them as the only fertile female in the com- 

 munity, though they can, as we shall see, produce other 

 queens from eggs which were destined for workers, if neces- 

 sity arises. As far as having any power to rule is concerned, 

 she is, in reality, ruled by the workers. It is her function 

 to lay the eggs from which all the other members develop. 

 Those eggs destined to become workers are laid in cells of 

 ordinary size ; those which are to become males are placed 

 in slightly larger cells; and those which are to become 

 queens, though differing in no way at first from those which 

 produce workers, are placed in special "royal" cells, much 

 larger and of an irregular shape. They are, of course, few 

 in number compared with the others. 



When the eggs hatch, all the larvae are fed for several 

 days on a jelly-like substance consisting of regurgitated 

 food mixed with a secretion from glands in the heads of the 

 workers and poured out from their mouths. After this the 

 workers and males receive beebread, a mixture of pollen 

 and honey, while the young queens are continued on their 

 diet of elaborated material, "royal jelly," furnished by the 

 workers. When for any reason a hive loses its queen, the 

 workers proceed to break down the walls between three adja- 

 cent cells containing worker larvae, kill two of the occupants, 

 and bring the third to maturity as a queen by use of royal 

 jelly. The first eggs laid in the spring produce workers ; the 

 males are produced from unfertilized eggs laid by the queen. 

 When the larva is full grown no more food is supplied to it, 

 and the cell is sealed with a waxen cover. Within this prison 



