48 STUDIES IN INSECT LIFE, ETC. 



Dr. H. Stadler has calculated that one gram of 

 bee flesh will yearly produce no grams of bee 

 eggs ! There is, however, a peculiar relation 

 quite inexplicable between the state of the hive 

 and the number of eggs laid. The latter varies 

 with the strength of the community ; if the 

 number of the hive is in some way lowered, the 

 egg-laying is intermitted. No egg is laid unless 

 there are enough able-bodied workers to tend the 

 resulting larva. In the tropics the activity of 

 the hive does not vary all the year round, but in 

 temperate climes the queen ceases laying in the 

 autumn and retires into winter quarters to re- 

 commence her task early in the following spring. 

 In the worker-cells and in the queen-cells the 

 queen lays fertilised eggs ; but in the drone-cells 

 the eggs are, as far as is known, invariably un- 

 fertilised. The birth of the drone or male bee 

 may therefore be described as a case of partheno- 

 genesis. What stimulus induces the reproductive 

 organs of the queen to give the spermatozoa 

 access to the egg in the former cases, and to with- 

 hold it in the latter is not understood. It can 

 hardly be a matter of season, for the worker-eggs 

 are laid at all times, the drones only when the 

 swarming of the hive seems imminent, and the 



