THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



87 



[Translated for the Boe Journal.] 



Development of the Italian Workers. 



BY TIIE BARON OP BEBLEPSCH. 



On the 22cl of May last, Mr. Axthelm, residing 

 lierc, received an Italian queen lice from Prof. 

 Moua, of Polleiiio, and I assisted iu preparing 

 a nucleus hive for her reception. "We concluded 

 to avail ourselves of the opportunity to observe 

 the process of development of the workers in 

 its various stages, from the hatching of the egg 

 to the perfect maturity of the insect as a honey- 

 gathering bee, and to si)are neither time nor 

 trouble iu ascertaining and noting the facts with 

 all possible minuteness. 



The nucleus was formed in this manner. We 

 took a comb of brood from a very populous 

 colon}' of black bees, confnied the quren thereon 

 in a cage, added a comb containing honey, and 

 four empty combs, supplying some of the cells 

 of one of these partially with water. Having 

 these arranged in the nucleus hive, we brushed 

 olfinto it all the workers from six frames, allot- 

 ting the few Italians which accompanied the 

 queen on her journey to a distant colony. Con- 

 sequently, in the experimental nucleus the 

 queen alone was of the Italian race, the Avorkers 

 being native or black bees. 



On the Sod of Maj% at precisely 7 o'clock in 

 the morning, the queen was lilierated, and on 

 the 24th, at 7 a. m., we found tweniy-one eugs 

 iu the cells of one of the empty coml)s, but not 

 an egg Avas found in the brood comb, all the 

 cells of which contained uncapped brood. We 

 tad purposely selected such a brood comb, in 

 order to be able to ascertain exactly when the 

 queen would begin to 1 ly eggs. 



As already stated, twentj^-oneeegs were found 

 in the cells precisely twenty-four hours after 

 the queen was liberated. These eggs had in all 

 likelihood been laid very shortly before 7 o'clock 

 on the morning of the 24tli, as they vfcrc so feio 

 in number; and it may hence be fairly inferred 

 that a fertile (pieen, suddenly inter)'Ui)ted in ovi- 

 positing, would recpiire nearly twenty-four 

 hours after liberation before her ovaries could 

 resume their function. This queen had been 

 prevented from laying nearly live daj's during 

 her transit from "PolJegio to Coburg. Not a 

 single egg was found in the piece of comb in 

 the transport hive, and it was scarcely jiossible 

 that it should have contained any, as nearly 

 every cell was stored with honey. 



We allowed the queen to pass over on another 

 of the empty combs densely covered with bees, 

 and then set this iu the sun that we might see 

 lier lay. At thirteen minutes past seven she 

 laid the lirst egg, and after laying five eggs 

 more before a quarter of eight, Ave replaced her 

 in the hive and remoA'ed the comb containing 

 the twenly-one eggs previously laid. We also 

 brushed olFthe bees from the other empty comb 

 inserted on the 22d, and removed it Irom (he 

 liive, that avc nught be iio<itively certain that 

 tlie oldest egg in the nucleus Avas laid on the 

 24th, at thirteen minutes after seven o'clock iu 

 the mornlDg. 



On the 26th of May, at thirteen minutes after 

 seven in the morning, precisely forty-eight hours 

 later, not one of these eggs Avas yet hatched. 

 To be certain of tliis, both the combs containing 

 eggs Avere lifted out and the bees brushed oft", 

 that each of us might carefully examine them. 

 Again, at thirteen minutes past twelve at noon, 

 at thirteen minutes past three in the afternoon, 

 and at thirteen minutes past seven in the even- 

 ing, not a larva Avas yet disclosed. But on the 

 morning of the 27ih, at thirteen minutes past 

 tive o'clock, sixty-nine eggs were hatched. 

 Thus larva; Avere dislosed from sixty-nine eggs 

 in the interval lietAveen sixty-one and seventy 

 hours. I do not say in from sixty-one to seventy 

 hours, because at fifteen minutes past seven 

 o'clock on the morning of the 24th only six 

 eggs had been layed. 



This corresponded with an experiment I made 

 in IB")!), but Avas in direct contravention of what 

 Gundelach alleges, (in his Supplement, page 

 2o,) that the larva emerges from the egg in 

 tAventy-four hours. Hundreds of observations 

 have taught the incorrectness of this statement. 



On the 3d of June, at thirteen minutes past 

 five o'clock in the morning, six days aceord- 

 iu'jly after the hatching of the eggs, not one 

 cell Avas yet sealed up, though it Avas evident 

 that arrangements for sealing up Avere in several 

 instances being made, as the inner margins of 

 some of the cells Avere obviously broadened. 

 At noon two of the cells Avere already so nearly 

 sealed over that only a small central hole Avas 

 still perceptible. At thirteen minutes past five 

 o'clock iu the evening nine cells were com- 

 pletely closed. It was thus found that in six 

 and a half days after the hatching of the eggs 

 the first cells AA'ere scaled OA'er. This harmon- 

 izes essentially Avith one of my experiments 

 made in IS.jO, and with those ot Gundelach as 

 detailed in his Treatise in 1S42 and in his Sup- 

 plement in 1852, but directly contradicts the 

 statement of Iluber, who assigns five days as 

 the term that the larva remains unsealed in the 

 cell. 



On the 11th of June, at thirteen minutes past 

 seven in the morning, precisely eighteen days 

 after the hatching of the eggs, none of the brood 

 had yet emerged, though the appearance of the 

 cappings on the comb first sui^plicd Avith eggs 

 showed plainly that many j'ouug bees were 

 nearly mature. At twelve o'clock, noon, and 

 also at three o'clock in the afternoon, no bees 

 had yet left their cells. But Avhen Ave renewed 

 the examination at thirte n minutes past seven 

 iu the CA'cning, avc had the great gratification of 

 seeing that tAvo bees had just cut through the 

 caps of their cells and Avero about to emerge. 

 In a minute later both Avere b'wn. 



It Avas thus ascertained that an Italian worker 

 may be maturely developed in eighteen days, 

 twelve hotcrs, and about one minute. At thirteen 

 minutes past eight o'clock iu the evening, just 

 before dusk, avc re-examined the hive, and 

 found that six bees had left their cells. On the 

 12th of June, at thirteen minutes past seven in 

 the morning, preci-^el}' nineteen days after the 

 first egg Avas laid, at least two hundied and fifty 

 bees had emerged. It Avas thus further ascer- 

 tained that, in the summer scasou, the Italian 



