34 



the notice of the Reverend Principal, it would have prevented bis promulgating a 

 theory which we believe to be entirely erroneous. 



"In the German ' Bieaeiizeituiig,' or Bee Journal, is an articiie by the Rev. M. 

 Kleine, one of the ablest German Apiarians, in which the following statement occurs : 

 ' Dzierzon recently intimated, that as Huber, by introducing some royal jelly into 

 cells containing worker-brood, obtained queens, it may be possible to induce bees to 

 construct royal cells, where the Apiarian prefers to have them, by inserting a small 

 portion of royal jelly in cells containing worker-larvae. If left to themselves, the bees 

 often so crowd their royal cells together that it is difficult to remove one without fatally 

 injuring the others; as, when such a cell is cut into, the destruction and removal of 

 the larva usually follows. To prevent such losses I usually proceed as follows : — 

 When I have selected a comb with unsealed brood for rearing queens, I shake or brush 

 off the bees and trim oiF, if necessary, the empty cells at the margin. Then take an 

 unsealed royal cell — which usually contains an excess of royal jelly — and remove from 

 il a portion of the jelly, on the point of a knife or pen, and by placing it on the inner 

 margin of any worker-cells, feel confident that the larvae in them will be reared as 

 queens ; and, as the royal cells are separate, and on the margin of the comb, they can 

 be easily and safely removed. This is another and important advance in practical 

 bee-culture, for which we are indebted to the sagacity of Dzierzon.' 



" The foregoing fact appears to us sufficiently conclusive as to the truth of Huber's 

 theory, regarding the influence of food in producing the astonishing devehipment of a 

 worker-larva into a queen-bee, and, after giving the whole subject our best consi- 

 deration, we feel warranted in pronouncing the special-temperature theory of the Rev. 

 Mr. Leitch to be ' not proven.' 



" I am very glad to find that our ideas on the queen-rearing problem are so 

 similar. With regard to the cells of queens, they are formed of wax like all the 

 others, and although, from being more substantial, they might not collapse so readily, 

 their destruction would be only slightly delayed, the melting point being the same. 

 The only difierence is in the cocoon with which they are lined, which is spun by the 

 royal larva, and is more substantial than that of the ordinary worker-larva. This_ 

 cocoon, however, does not line the upper end of the cell, as that would melt and the 

 lower part must then drop off" if an extreme temperature were applied. It has been 

 too much the fashion of late years to decry and discredit the theories of Huber; 

 some throw doubt on the influence or even the existence of royal jelly, but in this 

 case, as in similar ones, I believe that accurate investigation will prove Huber 

 to be right." 



Professor Westwood remarked that the question of the development of the queen- 

 bee, by increased heat, did not appear to him at all proved by Principal Leitcb's obser- 

 vations. The position of the cell itself, generally on the outer edge of the comb, and 

 never, or but very rarely, in the centre of the upper part of the hive, where the greatest 

 heat is concentrated, seemed to militate against this new theory ; whilst Professor 

 Westwood considered that (as it was satisfactorily established that the working bee was 

 only an abortive queen, and that a queen might be developed from an egg which in 

 ordinary circumstances would only produce a worker), he wasjuslitied by analogy, in 

 regarding the numerous queen wasps in a vespiary as produced from the same kind of 

 eggs as the workers, and also that the working ant, the soldier working ant and the 

 female ants are also only modifications produced from the same kind of eggs. He 



