ARTICULATA. 177 



food given to queen larvae. Several new queens finally appear, and a 

 conflict ensues, till one only survives. If a strange queen is introduced 

 soon after the original one has been removed, it is surrounded and starved, 

 but never stung ; though if the interval of eighteen hours has elapsed, the 

 stranger will be at first surrounded, but afterwards allowed to go. If, 

 however, the hive has been twenty-four hours without a queen, the new 

 comer takes her place as queen. When two queens come together they 

 fight until one of them is killed. 



Most of the eggs laid by the female bee are those of workers, until she is 

 about eleven months old, when two or three thousand male eggs are laid at 

 the rate of forty or fifty a day, and this generally happens in March and 

 April, a smaller amount of male eggs being laid in autumn. Whilst laying 

 the male eggs, the queen also lays the few which are to produce females, 

 and these are deposited in " royal cells" constructed for the purpose, of a 

 large size, and not placed in regular series like the others. These eggs 

 are not laid faster than one a day, and seldom to the number of twenty ; mid 

 they are placed at once in the royal cells by the queen, who inserts her 

 abdomen for the purpose. 



When the young females approach their adult state, the queen becomes 

 uneasy, she communicates her uneasiness to the workere, and in their con- 

 fusion they all go forth with the old queen, thus forming a new swarm ; but 

 as this occurs in fine weather when many of the bees are abroad, these, 

 upon their return, take care of the hive, and others soon leave the pupa 

 state. 



The female eggs (not being laid simultaneously) come to maturity at 

 different times ; and when the young female leaves its pupa state, it begins 

 to gnaw an aperture for its egress, but the workers prevent this for two days 

 by stopping the place with wax. AVhen she finally emerges, she endeavors 

 to go to the other royal cells to destroy them and their inmates, but she is 

 prevented by the workers, and another scene of confusion ensues which, in 

 a full hive, ends in a second swarming. This reduces the workers so much, 

 that when another female emerges she cannot be prevented from destroying 

 the royal cells and their contents, so that she becomes queen of the hive, 

 although she may have to fight with others which emerge about the same 

 time. Small hives do not send off swarms, and in this case royal cells are 

 not made nor female eggs laid. After swarming the males are killed, and 

 being without a sting, they readily succumb under the stings of the 

 workers. 



Yarious species of the bee are kept for the honey. That of Italy is 

 diiferent from the Apis mellifica of Northern Europe and the United States. 



Order 8. Lepidoptera. In this order the metamorphosis is complete, the 

 anteunse multi-articulate, the labrura and mandibles rudimentary, the 

 maxillffi forming a spiral sucker, the labial palpi are large, the wings broad 

 with branching nervures, and having both surfaces covered with minute 

 scales. 



These insects are known under the general name of 'butterflies ; some 

 small species which destroy cloth in their larva state (or the larvas them- 



381 



