The Life of the Bee 



more economical and capacity greater. 

 We have seen, too, that the queen prefers 

 to lay in the smaller cells, for which she is 

 incessantly clamouring. When these are 

 wanting, however, or till they be provided, 

 she resigns herself to laying her eggs in 

 the large cells she finds on her road. 



These eggs, though absolutely identical 

 with those from which workers are 

 hatched, will give birth to males, or 

 drones. Now, conversely to what takes 

 place when a worker is turned into queen, 

 it is here neither the form nor the capac- 

 ity of the cell that produces this change ; 

 for from an egg laid in a large cell and 

 afterwards transferred to that of a worker 

 (a most difficult operation, because of 

 the microscopic minuteness and extreme 

 fragility of the egg, but one that I have 

 four or five times successfully accom- 

 plished) there will issue an undeniable 

 male, though more or less atrophied. Jt 

 222 



