BEE. 439 



tioTi on this point naturally passed current as authentic fact. Tak- 

 ing it for granted, therefore, that there existed such a discrepancy 

 in the structure of the antennas of queens and of workers, natural, 

 iists were startled at the new doctrine, that both were females, 

 and that the larves of workers could be converted into queens, 

 Mr. Kirby has corrected the Swedish knight, and informs us, that 

 there are positively the same number of articulations in the anten* 

 nas of queens as in those of workers. This testimony is not the 

 less deserving of credit, since it militates against Mr. Kirby's own 

 notions, that workers are proper neuters. 



M. Huber imagines he has discovered the cause of the partial 

 expansion of the sexual organs in those workers that prove fertile* 

 He observes, that fertile workers appear in those hives only, that 

 have lost the queen, and where of course a quantity of royal jelly 

 is prepared for feeding the larves intended to replace her. He 

 suspects that bees, either by accident, or by a particular instinct, 

 the principle of which is unknown, drop some particles of royal 

 jelly into cells, contiguous to those containing the worms destined 

 for queens. The larves of workers that thus casually receive por- 

 tions of this active aliment are affected by it, and their ovaries 

 acquire a certain degree of expansion : from the want of full feed- 

 ing, and owing to the smallness of their cells, this expansion is 

 only partial, and such fertile workers remain of the ordinary size 

 of working-bees, and lay only a few eggs. This idea of a deve- 

 lopment of sexual organs by the use of a peculiar food is not new. 

 It constituted a doctrine of the Epicurean theory, and is alluded 

 to by Lucretius in the following, as well as in a variety of other 

 passages *. 



Multa, videmus, enim rebus concurrere debent, 

 Vt propagando possint procudere secla : 

 Pabula primuin ut sint, genitalia deinde per artus 

 Semina, quae possint membris manare remissis. 



For with cause, 

 Cause ceaseless must combine, or nought can rise 

 Of race generic : genial foods must spring, 

 And genial organs, from the total frame 

 The vital seeds concoctted to collect. Good. 



* Dc Rer. Nat. v. 843. 

 2l4 



