128 HYPOTHESIS OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF 



periments, that the bees can so modify a larva, which other- 

 wise would result in a worker, that, when the perfect insect 

 emerges from the pupa, it is found to be a queen or true fe- 

 male. For this purpose they enlarge its cell, make a pyra- 

 midal hollow to allow of its assuming a vertical instead of a 

 horizontal position, keep it warmer than other larvae are kept, 

 and feed it with a peculiar kind of food. From these simple 

 circumstances, leading to a shortening of the embryotic con- 

 dition, results a creature different in form, and also in dispo- 

 sitions, from what would have otherwise been produced. 

 Some of the organs possessed by the worker are here wanting, 

 We have a creature " destined to enjoy love, to burn with 

 jealousy and anger, to be incited to vengeance, and to pass her 

 time without labour," instead of one " zealous for the good of 

 the community, a defender of the public rights, enjoying an 

 immunity from the stimulus of sexual appetite and the pains 

 of parturition ; laborious, industrious, patient, ingenious, 

 skilful ; incessantly engaged in the nurture of the young, in 

 collecting honey and pollen, in elaborating wax, in con- 

 structing cells and the like ! paying the most respectful and 

 assiduous attention to objects which, had its ovaries been de- 

 veloped, it would have hated and pursued with the most vin- 

 dictive fury till it had destroyed them!"( 59 ) All these 

 changes may be produced by a mere modification of the em- 

 bryotic progress, which is within the power of the adult 

 animals to effect. By the arrangements made and the food 

 given, the embryo becomes sooner fit for being ushered forth 

 in its imago or perfect state. Development may be said to be 

 v *thus arrested at a particular stage that early one at which 

 the female sex is complete. In the other circumstances, it is 

 allowed to go on four days longer, and a stage is then reached 

 between the two sexes, which in this species is destined to be 

 the perfect condition of a large portion of the community. 

 Four days more make it a perfect male. It may be observed 

 that there is, from the period of oviposition, a destined dis- 

 tinction between the sexes of the young bees. The queen 

 lays the whole of the eggs which are designed to become 

 workers, before she begins to lay those which become males. 



