GOVERNMENT OP WASPS AND BEES. 317 



the experiments of Huber, undertaken at the instance 

 of Bonnet, to ascertain how far Schirach was to be 

 trusted. " I placed," says he, " in a hive deprived 

 of the queen, some pieces of comb containing eggs 

 of workers, in cells of the same kind as those already 

 hatched. The same day several cells were enlarged 

 by the bees and converted into royal cells, the grubs 

 being supplied with a thick bed of jelly. We then 

 removed five of the grubs from those cells (to remove 

 the possibility of their being from royal eggs), and 

 substituted for them five common grubs, which had 

 been hatched forty-eight hours previously under our 

 eyes. The bees did not seem to perceive the change, 

 watching over the substituted worms as over those 

 of their own selection ; and continuing to enlarge 

 the cells, they closed them at the usual time. Seven 

 days afterwards we took away the cells to preserve 

 the queens that would be produced; and in due time 

 two were excluded almost at the same moment, of 

 the largest size, and in every respect well formed. 

 No queens having appeared in the other cells, we 

 opened them, and found two with only the dried 

 skins of the grubs, and in the other a dead queen- 

 nymph. I can conceive nothing more conclusive 

 than this experiment, since it demonstrates the power 

 possessed by the bees of converting the grubs of 

 workers into queens, for they did so with grubs 

 which we ourselves had selected ; and it also proves 

 that it is not indispensable for these grubs to be 

 three days old." 



" A hive in my possession," continues Huber, 

 " having been long deprived of the queen, contained 

 neither egg nor grub, and I provided for it a queen 

 of the greatest fertility. She immediately began 

 laying in the cells of workers, but I removed her 

 before she had been quite three days in the hive, 

 and before any of her eggs were hatched. The 



2 E 3 



