mite, or wliite-ant, as it is often erroneously called. Tlii:^ 

 creature, who measures in her virgin state about half-an- 

 inch in leng-th, and proportionahly wide — not quite so large 

 as a small wasp — when laying-, measures three inches in 

 length, and about an inch in diameter. The whole of this 

 enormous mass is composed of eggs, which are laid at the 

 rate of sixty per minute. 



During a considerable period the eggs of workers 

 alone are deposited, or in other words, eggs are deposited 

 in the cells for the worker-bees only, which form the 

 great mass of the cells, as the workers form the great 

 bulk of the bee community. But after a certain time 

 the queen begins to lay eggs in the cells of the droneS;^ 

 which are larger and more substantial than the cells of the 

 workers, and later built. Their position is generally near 

 the bottom of the combs, And now, hj what mysterious 

 law is it that twenty days after these drone-cells receive 

 their egg^, from wliich are to spring* the males of the 

 future community, the worker-bees begin the erection of a 

 still more stately species of cell for the deposition of the 

 eggs that are to become queens, and to be fertilized by the 

 said drones ? Who can tell ? These royal cells show how 

 little of mere routine, or slavish adherence to instinct, guides 

 the bees. They differ in their numbers in different hives, 

 from three or four, to twelve or thirteen ; they are situ«<;4}d 

 frequently at the sides of the combs, but are also found in 

 the very centre, standing erect like a queenly palace, nearlj 

 two inches high, and erected with a most loyal disregard 

 of all those habits of economy which the bees show in so 

 striking a manner in their meaner erections. Thus, for 

 instance, they will use as much wax to build one of the 

 royal cradles, as would suffice for a hundred of the others* 

 The form of the royal cell is not unlike that of a pear 

 suspended perpendicularly, with the sides or walls full of 

 holes. 



For four days the egg of the worker-bee remains appa- 

 rently unchanged. But the vital principle is at work 

 :vithin, and at the appointed time, on the fifth day, a small 

 \vhite worm, with several ventral rings, appears at the 

 bottom of each cell. This increases in size, nourished 

 probably by the whitish transparent fluid in whicli it 



