CHAPTER III. 



THE QUEEN-BEE 



Early Errors as to Sex The " Mother Bee" Distinguishing Charac- 

 teristics Functions Attentions ipaid her Effects of Loss-; how 

 Repaired by Bees Enmity to Rivals Length of Life Egg-laying. 



ONE of the earliest facts ascertained in the study 

 of bees was that there existed in each colony one 

 individual differing considerably from all the rest in 

 appearance and in functions. Early observers, it is 

 true, mistook even the sex of the one so distinguished. 

 Vergil says : 



" Et circa regern atque ipsa ad prgetoria densae 

 Miscentur." 



And, again, 



" Rege incolumi mens omnibus una est." 



Shakespeare, in the passage quoted in a previous 

 chapter, talks of "a king," and other writers were 

 equally ignorant of the true state of the case. The 

 headship of the hive is, in fact, held by a solitary 

 female, to whom the name of " queen " has been 

 given, both on account of the respect she receives, 

 and the controlling influence she appears to exercise 

 over the other inmates of her domain. The Germans, 

 on perfectly safe grounds, call her " the mother-bee " ; 

 and it is, doubtless, owing to the all-important 



C 



