1 EIPE-RISTORYV OF ZOUBUS 53 
worker and male of 4. agrorum in copulation, there 
is ample evidence to show that the laying workers 
are virgins, and this explains why they produce 
males only, the parthenogenetic production of the 
drone being a well-known phenomenon in the case 
of the honey-bee. 
The eggs of the workers are as large as those of 
the queen ; even the tiny workers lay full-sized eggs, 
although they cannot develop more than one or 
two at a time. Several workers will lay their eggs 
in the same cell, and while they are ovipositing there 
is a great deal of rivalry and quarrelling between 
them. But unless the queen is unprolific, or dies 
early, the workers produce very few offspring, indeed 
in many nests they produce none. 
The store of honey in the cocoons is generally at 
its greatest soon after the young queens begin to 
emerge. Ina favourable season a populous colony 
may have all the vacated cocoons, amounting to over 
400, filled with thick honey and sealed over with 
wax. 
The largest colonies are made by Japzdarius, 
terrestris, and lucorum. On July 24, 1894, I took 
a nest of /afidarius containing 245 workers. On 
July 14, 1911, I took a ¢errestrzs nest with 221 
workers. In both these nests workers were still 
emerging from their cocoons, and the oldest workers 
had died. I have also taken very strong nests of 
lucorum, and I think that the number of workers in 
a nest of any of these species must sometimes reach 
300. The colonies of the carder-bees, on the other 
