158 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



April, generally speaking, there are no males in the 

 hives ; yet during this period the queen often ovipo- 

 sits: a former fecundation, therefore, must fertilize all 

 the eggs laid in this interval. The impregnation, in 

 order to ensure complete fertility, must not be too long 

 retarded ; for, as I before observed, if this be delayed 

 beyond the twenty-eighth day of her existence, her 

 ovaries become so vitiated, that she can no longer lay 

 eggs that will produce workers, but can only furnish 

 the hive with a male population ; which, however high 

 a privilege it may be accounted amongst men, is the 

 reverse of it amongst the bees. When this is the case, 

 the abdomen of the queen becomes so enlarged that 

 she is no longer able to fly^; and, what is remarkable, 

 she loses that instinctive animosity which stimulates 

 the fertile ones to attack their rivals'^. Thus she seems 

 to own that she is not equal to the duties of her station, 

 and can tolerate another to discharge them in her room. 

 When we consider how much virgin queens are slighted 

 by their subjects, we may suppose that nature urges 

 them to take the opportunity of tlie first warm day, 

 when the males fly forth, to pair with one of them. 



When fecundation has not been retarded, forty-six 

 hours after it has taken place, the queen begins to lay 

 eggs that vvill produce workers, and continues for the 

 subsequent eleven months, more or less, to lay them 

 solely ; and it is only after this period that an uninter- 

 rupted laying of male eggs commences. — But when it 

 has been retarded, after the same number of hours she 

 begins laying male eggs, and continues to produce 

 these alone during her whole life. From hence it 

 * Schirach, 257. " Jluber, i. 319— 



