PAIRING OP INSECTS. 221 



uoise in the air, and hastened to put the bees into 

 a hive prepared on purpose. The object of the expe- 

 riment, notwithstanding this unexpected occurrence, 

 was completely fulfilled ; for, on examination of all 

 the bees, I was convinced they had been conducted 

 by the old queen, whom 1 had introduced on the 6th 

 of the month, and who had been marked, by depriving- 

 her of one of her antenna? ; and what was more, there 

 was no other queen besides this one in the colony ; 

 but in the hive she had left I found several royal cells, 

 close at the top, but open at the side, and quite empty; 

 eleven more were sealed, and some others newly be- 

 gun. No queen remained in the hive. 



" My attention was now directed to the new swarm, 

 which I watched during the winter and the following 

 spring, and in April I had the satisfaction of seeing 

 another swarm depart, with the same queen at its head 

 who had conducted the former one the preceding May. 

 This experiment, then, is positive arid conclusive ; and 

 I have repeated it several times, with equal success. 

 It therefore appears to be incontestable, that the old 

 queen always conducts the first swarm, but never 

 quits the hive before depositing eggs in the royal 

 cells, from which other queens will be disclosed, after 

 her departure, to succeed to her abandoned kingdom. 

 These royal cells are prepared by the bees only while 

 the queen is laying male eggs, which is attended by 

 the remarkable fact, that after this laying terminates, 

 her belly being considerably diminished, she can easily 

 fly, whereas it is previously so heavy that she can 

 hardly drag it along. It becomes necessary, there- 

 fore, that she should lay, in order to be in a state for 

 undertaking her journey, as this may sometimes be of 

 considerable length *." We are hence authorised to 

 infer that the deposition of eggs, from once pairing, 

 takes the queen-bee above a year. 



* Huber on Bees, p. 149. 



u3 



