THE SOCIAL INSECTS 



properly understood. Nevertheless, the transference experi- 

 ments seem to prove that diet is the essential factor in pro- 

 ducing queens or workers. 



The difference in diet also affects the time which is neces- 

 sary for the adult to develop, for, while all eggs hatch on the 

 third day, it takes the queen on the average thirteen, the 

 worker eighteen and the drone twenty-one more days to 

 complete development. These times seem to be related both 

 to the richness and quantity of the diet received, and to the 

 relative sizes of the three castes. 



Queens are in general produced by the colony under two 

 conditions: when it is preparing either for swarming, or for 

 supersedure. Swarming is the normal method by which the 

 colony reproduces, and in preparation for it several and in 

 some varieties very large numbers of queen cells are con- 

 structed. Supersedure is the process by which a queen who 

 is old or whose oviposition is falling off is replaced by a 

 young, vigorous queen. In preparation for supersedure 

 only one queen cell may be constructed and rarely more than 

 three. A special case of supersedure occurs if the queen 

 unexpectedly dies, and the rearing of a new one becomes 

 necessary to meet the emergency. In this situation the queen 

 will be reared in a " post-constructed " queen cell, that is one 

 built from a worker cell already containing an egg or, more 

 often, a grub less than three days old. After supersedure, 

 the new and old queens may live and oviposit together for a 

 long period without fighting. The intense rivalry between 

 queens occurs only after swarming, or if two young queens 

 emerge at about the same time during supersedure. 



The honey bee differs from all other social species whose 

 colonies reproduce by swarming, because it is as a rule the 

 old queen which accompanies the swarm. Exceptions 

 chiefly occur in secondary swarms, when the colony swarms 



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