290 THE COURTSHIP OF ANIMALS 



is a proof of his failure to justify his existence, for no 

 drone ever experienced Love's embrace and lived to 

 tell the tale : hence, when the time comes, he is slain 

 without compunction. 



These differences between the fully-developed male 

 and female present nothing very striking ; but how are 

 the singular peculiarities of structure and instinct in 

 the " workers " to be accounted for ? They are present 

 in neither queen nor drone, yet by them they are trans- 

 mitted to their offspring from one generation to another ! 

 It is true that every worker, for a time, is a potential 

 queen, and every queen, but for the grace of Chance, 

 might have been a worker. All depends on the food. 

 It is remarkable, but apparently the fact, that a more 

 generous diet, or, rather, a more stimulating diet, should 

 so profoundly modify the organism, but, it is to be noted, 

 this sleight-of-hand is only successfully practised on a 

 larva during its first three days of existence. Thus the 

 royal bee jelly stimulates the growth of the sexual 

 organs and inhibits the development of the structures 

 peculiar to the worker — the basket, and pollen-hairs, 

 and so on. These structures are not made by the 

 food ; they are simply nourished or inhibited, as the 

 case may be. Nevertheless, one cannot help being 

 mystified by the fact that the mere difference in the 

 quality of the food, or, rather, in the chemical con- 

 stituents thereof, should cause the inhibition, or, rather, 

 the suppression, of relatively complex structures like the 

 corbiculum and the reduction of the number of the facets 

 of the eye. To say that the structures inhibited, in the 

 case of the queen, are just those which will be of no 

 service when in her royal state, is by no means to explain 

 the mystery. And what is true of the physical side is 



