BEES. 57 



tbus royally destined a lavish supply. They then pnss 

 through the usual stag'e of pupa to that of perfect queen. 

 The discoverer, or rather, perhaps, the reviver and promul- 

 gator, of this startling- metamorphosis was Schirach, a 

 clergyman of Little Bautzen ; and his experiments have 

 heen confirmed by Huber. 



The final experiment which proved this most wonderM 

 and astounding- fact, is thus related by himself: — "I put 

 some pieces of comb containing* worker's eg-g-s in the cells, 

 of the same kind as those already hatched, into a hive 

 deprived of the queen. The same day several cells were 

 enlarg-ed by the bees, and converted into royal cells, and the 

 worms supplied with a thick bed of jelly. Five were then 

 removed from these cells, and five common worms, which 

 forty-eig-ht hours before we had seen come from the eg-g*, 

 substituted for them. The bees did not seem aware of the 

 chang-e ; they watched over the new worms the same as 

 those chosen by themselves • they continued enlarg-ing- the 

 cells, and closed them at the usual time. When they had 

 hatched them seven days, we removed the cells to see the 

 queens that were to be produced. Two were excluded 

 almost at the same moment, of the largest size, and well 

 formed in every respect. The time of the other cells having 

 elapsed, and no queen appearing-, we opened them. In one 

 was a dead queen, but still a nymph, the other two were 

 empty. The worms had spun their silk cocoons, but died 

 before passing- into their nymphine state, and presented only 

 a dry skin. I can conceive nothing- more conclusive than 

 this experiment. It demonstrates that bees have the power 

 of converting- the worms of workers into queens, since they 

 succeeded in procuring- queens by operating- on the worms 

 which we ourselves had selected." 



These facts seem wonderful enoug-h, but Mr. Pettig-rew, a 

 well known practical apiarist, will not allow this strange 

 power to be explained by the assertion that the metamor- 

 phosis is accomplished by permitting- the female grub to 

 attain to its full development, but makes it even more ex- 

 traordinary by denying that it is meiely the eggs of workers 

 that can be thus metamorphosed. He says, " How startling* 

 soever it may seem, how doubtful soever my friends may 

 be, I, were I worth a thousand pounds, and given to betting, 



