432 iNSKCfS. 



twenty first day of her life. In the natural order of things, or 

 when impregnation is not retarded, the queen begins to lay the 

 eggs of workers forty-six hours after her intercourse with the male, 

 and she continues for the subsequent eleven months to lay none 

 but these ; u and it is only after this period, that a considerable 

 and uninterrupted laying of the eggs of drones commences. When, 

 on the contrary, impregnation is retarded after the twenty.eight 

 day, the queen begins, from *he forty sixth hour, to lay the eggs of 

 drones; and she lavs no other kind during her whole life." It 

 would be tedious to detail the experiments ; they were numerous, 

 and the results uniform. u I occupied myself," says M. Huber, 

 w the remainder of 1787, and the two subsequent years, with ex- 

 periments on retarded fecundation, and had constantly the same 

 results. It is undoubted, therefore, that when the copulation of 

 queens is retarded beyond the twentieth day, only an imperfect 

 impregnation is operated ; instead of laying the eggs of workers 

 and of males equally, she will lay those of males only." 



This discovery is entirely M. Huber's own : and so difficult is 

 it to offer any plausible explanation of the fact, that he himself has 

 scarcely attempted it. The difficulty is much increased when we 

 consider that a single interview with the male is sufficient for fe- 

 eundifying the whole eggs that a queen will lay in the course of at 

 least two years : we cannot avoid observing, however, that a simi- 

 lar fact occurs in the economy of the female aphis, which by a sin- 

 gle impregnation is well known to produce several successive gene* 

 rations. In the present instance, it would be in vain to say that an 

 early impregnation may be necessary for the eggs of workers, and 

 a later for those of drones. It will be recollected, that, in the na- 

 tural state, the queen lays the eggs of workers for the first eleven 

 months, to the amount of many thousands, before she lays a single 

 drone egg ; but that when her impregnation has been for a few days 

 retarded, she begins at once to lay the eggs of drones. The gene. 

 Tally admitted principle of the successive expansion of eggs render 

 this very puzzling ; for how comes it that eggs of drones, which 

 naturally require eleven months to come to perfection in the ovaria 

 of the queen, are, in this case, perfected in forty-eight hours ? 

 "What has become of the vast multitude of workers' eggs that the 

 queen ought ^rst to have deposited ? It is certain that, during the 



