158 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



her court consists of from four to twelve attendants, which 

 are disposed nearly in a circle, with their heads turned 

 towards her. After laying from two to six eggs, she re- 

 mains still, reposing for eight or nine minutes. During 

 this interval the bees in her train redouble their atten- 

 tions, licking her fondly with their tongues. Generally 

 speaking, she lays only one egg in a cell; but when she 

 is pressed, and there ai^ not cells enough, from two to 

 four have been found in one. In this case, as if they 

 were aware of the consequences, the provident workers 

 remove all but one. From an experiment of Huberts, it 

 appears that the instinct of the queen invariably directs 

 her to deposit worker 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 the workers 

 devoured them. Retarded queens, however, lose this 

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

 sit 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 no- 

 thing to their ordinary dimensions a . 



The swarming of bees is a very curious and interest- 

 ing subject, to which, since a female is the sine qua 

 non on this occasion, I may very properly call your at- 

 tention here. You will recollect that I said something 

 upon the principle of emigrations, when I was amusing 

 a Huber, i. 122 



