84 THE BROOD. 



they attain to the state of perfect insects on the 

 twenty-fourth day. 



We may briefly notice here the statement of Huher 

 respecting the order in which the different kinds of 

 eggs are arranged in the ovarium of the Queen, and 

 the law which regulates her laying. He says, that 

 "nature does not allow the Queen the choice of the 

 eggs she is to lay ;" that " it is ordained she shall, at 

 a certain time of the year, produce those of males, 

 and, at another time, the eggs of workers ; an order 

 which cannot be inverted ; " that f ' the eggs are not 

 indiscriminately mixed in the ovaries of the Queen, 

 but arranged so that at a particular season she can 

 lay only a certain kind;" that "she can lay no male 

 eggs until those of the workers, occupying the first 

 place in the oviducts, are discharged/'* We do 

 not mean to question this statement, as holding true 

 generally, but we think it made in terms too unquali- 

 fied, and that there are palpable and frequent excep- 

 tions. He'has himself acknowledged elsewhere that 

 a Queen hatched in spring will sometimes lay fifty or 

 sixty eggs of males during the course of the ensuing 

 summer, and we have repeatedly witnessed the fact. 

 Now, this takes place only in certain circumstances, 

 and under certain conditions, namely, that the family 

 of the Queen so laying shall have been a very early 

 swarm, that it shall abound in population, and that 

 the season shall be genial, and the secretion of honey 

 in the flowers plentiful. In such a favourable junc- 

 ture of circumstances, it almost invariably happens 

 * Huber, 44 and 136. 



