294 THE COURTSHIP OF ANIMALS 



appeared later produced fertile eggs, having been more 

 abundantly fed by their infertile elder sisters. The 

 number of fertile females which appear at this stage of the 

 colony seems again to be regulated by the abundance 

 of food, which varies in amount with fine, or cold, 

 weather. Even among the worker broods fertile females 

 may appear. They owe their fertility apparently to good 

 luck, which afforded them the opportunity of securing 

 more food than their sisters. The birth of young from 

 females about whose virginity there can be no question 

 is certainly remarkable, but it would seem that this 

 parthenogenetic state is one of limited endurance, for 

 towards the end of summer males appear, and these 

 mating with some of the later-born females, lead again 

 to the appearance of a queen, who, being fertihzed, alone 

 survives the winter to carry on the race with the 

 succeeding summer. 



Thus, then, the mysterious existence of the workers 

 among the Hive-bees, displaying structural peculiarities 

 and instincts so different from those of the queen-mother, 

 is explained. For the queen, in this case, is evidently 

 the product of a more intensified, more perfected, social 

 system, relieved, from the first, of the labours of building 

 and the care of her offspring, duties which the queen 

 Bumble-bee has at first to perform for herself, because 

 all her children die at the end of the summer. Among 

 Hive-bees fertile workers also occasionally occur ; they 

 are probably bees which in their larval state received 

 a more than usually abundant supply of food, or food 

 approximating to the "bee jelly" which produces young 

 queens. The difference, t^icn, between the individuals 

 of a colony of Hive-bees and one of Bumble-bees lies 

 in the greater abundance of fertile workers and in the 



