I^ElRFECT SOCICTirS OF INSECTS. IGl 



ment, her court consists of from four to twelve at- 

 tendants, whicli are disposed nearly in a circle, with 

 their heads turned towards her. After laying- from 

 two to six eggs, she remains still, reposing for eight 

 or nine minutes. During this interval the bees in her 

 train redouble their attentions, licking her fondly with 

 their tongues. Generally speaking, she lays only one 

 egg in a cell ; but when she is pressed, and there are 

 not cells enough, from two to four have been found in 

 one. In this case, as if they were aware of the conse- 

 quences, the provident workers remove all but one. 

 From an experiment of Iluber's it appears that the 

 instinct of the queen invariably directs her to deposit 

 w orker eggs in worker cells ; for when he confined one, 

 during her course of laying worker eggs, where she 

 could only come at male cells, she refused to oviposit 

 in them : and trying in vain to make her escape, they 

 at length dropped from her ; upon which th6 workers 

 devoured them. Retarded queens, however, lose this 

 instinct, and often, though they lay only male eggs, 

 oviposit in worker cells, and even in royal ones. In 

 this latter case the workers themselves act as if they 

 suffered in their instinct from the imperfect state of 

 their queen ; for they feed these male larvae with royal 

 jelly, and treat them as they would a real queen. 

 Though male eggs deposited in worker cells produce 

 small males, their education in a royal cell with " royal 

 dainties" adds nothing to their ordinary dimensions'". 



The swarming of bees is a very curious and interest- 

 ing subject, to Avhich, since a female is the sine qua no n 

 on this occasion, I may very properly call your attcn- 



" llubcr, i. 12^— 

 VOL. IL. M 



