THE HONEY BEE. 25? 



The difference between queen-mothers, with fully de- 

 veloped egg-producing organs, and workers, in which the 

 egg-producing organs are present in an undeveloped 

 condition, would seem to be determined by diet. The 

 grubs which issue from the silvery eggs are fed by young 

 workers, hence termed nurses, with food elaborated in 

 their stomachs to which a glandular secretion is very 

 possibly added. This chyle-food elaborated by the young- 

 worker bees (the older workers giving up nursing and 

 taking to foraging), is termed royal-jelly, and resembles 

 in appearance water-arrowroot. Of the three forms of 

 bee-food, pollen, honey, and royal jelly, this is the richest 

 and the most concentrated. It seems to have a wonder- 

 fully stimulating effect on the reproductive organs. More 

 is supplied to drones than to workers ; most of all to the 

 queen-mother, who throughout life is provided with this 

 stimulating food by nurses who are ever ready to minister 

 to her wants. The worker larva is after three days, just 

 when the egg-producing organs are showing signs of de- 

 velopment, weaned, and is thenceforward fed with less 

 stimulating pap to which honey is added. The drone 

 larva is also weaned at about the same time, and is given 

 some pollen as well as the honey. 



It is well known that the queen-bee can brook no rival, 

 and that when there are several royal nymphs in a hive 

 the first-born throws herself upon her unprotected sisters, 

 still sleeping their strange chrysalis sleep, and pierces 

 them with her sting. But what if the queen should 

 die, and the hive be thus left motherless ? The workers 

 then proceed to the cells in which are worker eggs newly 

 laid. They tear down the partition walls so as to throw 

 three cells into one. Two of the embryonic inhabitants 

 they sacrifice ; but the third, which must not have been 

 weaned, they feed right royally. And under the stimu- 



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