434 INSECTS. 



the more remarkable, as she did not commence laying until fouy 

 months and a half after fecundation. It is not rigourously true, 

 therefore, that the term of forty-six hours elapses between the 

 copulation of the female and her laying ; the interval may be much 

 longer, if the weather grows cold. Lastly, it follows, that although 

 cold will retard the laying of a queen impregnated in autumn, she 

 will begin to lay in spring without requiring new copulation.'' 



M. Huber had also an opportunity of correcting those naturalists, 

 who maintain that the working bees are charged with the task 

 of conveying into proper cells such eggs as may be misplaced by 

 the queen. He put a queen, who was ready to lay worker's eggs, 

 into a prepared hive which contained only the cells of drones, but 

 which communicated, by a narrow tube (sufficient to permit work- 

 ers to pass, but too small for the queen), with another hive 

 which contained plenty of the cells of workers. The queen, taught 

 by nature the kind of eggs she was about to lay, searched about 

 for suitable cells ; but finding none, she chose rather to drop her 

 eggs at random, than place those of workers in the cells of drones. 

 The eggs thus dropped, soon disappeared ; and careless observer* 

 might have concluded that they were carried off by the workers 

 to the proper cells ; but none were to be seen there ; and the au- 

 thor soon ascertained that they were really eaten up by the workers. 

 Thus it was proved that the care of depositing properly the respec- 

 tive kinds of eggs is left entirely to the instinct of the queen ; and 

 that the workers running off with misplaced eggs in order to 

 devour them, has been mistaken for their tenderly conveying them 

 to the right cells. When the impregnation of the queen-bee is 

 retarded, her instinct seems to suffer ; for she then lays her eggs 

 indiscriminately in large and in small cells ; those laid in large 

 cells producing large drones ; those in small cells, small drones ; 

 and she has been known to lay the eggs of drones even in royal 

 cells, some of which kind of cells the bees always take care to 

 construct whenever the queen begins to lay male eggs. It is re 

 markable that the workers were, on these last occasions, deceived, 

 and treated the embryo drones as if they had been truly of the 

 royal brood. 



The working-bees had been for ages considered as entirely des. 

 titute of sex; and hence, in the writings of many authors they 

 are denominated neuters. From the experiments of Schirach and 



