NOTES ON HYMENOPTERA. 79 



of the queen of the liive-bee is induced by the larva being 

 supjjlied with what is called royal jelly ; whilst food of a less 

 nutritive, or less stimulating character, causes the develop- 

 ment of males and worker bees. 



Dr. Siebold, in his treatise on Parthenogenesis, appeared 

 to have settled the law of sexual development in insects most 

 satisfactorily ; and to have proved beyond the possibility of 

 mistake or illusion, that worker bees, as well as queens, 

 originate from eggs fecundated by the queen, whereas males 

 are the product of non-fecundated eggs. Landois asserts, 

 however, that independent of the eggs, destined to produce 

 males and workers, being deposited in different-sized cells, 

 that the food supplied for the nourishment of the young 

 bees is not the same in the two cases ; this, Landois observes, 

 led him to try the experiment of transfei'ring eggs deposited 

 in woiker cells into the larger cells of the drones ; a similar 

 transformation being made of the larvae in drone cells into 

 those of the workers ; thereby causing an opposite produc- 

 tion in each case. The experiment was tried, and, after one 

 or two failures, the desired result was attained. 



Landois discovered that it was necessary to transfer the 

 eggs without touching them. In order to accomplish this, a 

 piece of the bottom of the cell, upon which the egg was 

 deposited, was cut away with a small pointed knife; the 

 fiagment on which the egg lay was then transported into the 

 other cell, worker bees were developed from male eggs, and 

 vice versa. The experiment was repeated several times with 

 the like result, and therefore, according to these experiments, 

 it is not the fecundation of the eggs, or the non-fecundation, 

 to which can be attributed the production of females, workers 

 or males : it is, on the contrary, solely dependant upon the 

 quality and quantity of the food with which the larvae are 

 nourished. 



