The Life of the Bee 



an indescribable prestige. It is here that 

 the mothers are formed. In each one of 

 these capsules, before the swarm departs, 

 an egg will be placed by the mother, or 

 more probably — though as to this we 

 have no certain knowledge — by one of 

 the workers ; an egg that she will have 

 taken from some neighbouring cell, and 

 that is absolutely identical with those from 

 which workers are hatched. 



From this egg, after three days, a small 

 larva will issue, and receive a special and 

 very abundant nourishment ; and hence- 

 forth we are able to follow, step by step, 

 the movements of one of those magnifi- 

 cently vulgar methods of nature on which, 

 were we dealing with men, we should 

 bestow the august name of fatality. The 

 little larva, thanks to this regimen, as- 

 sumes an exceptional development ; and 

 in its ideas, no less than in its body, there 

 ensues so considerable a change that the 

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