332 THE INSECT WORLD. 
different from that which is given to the larve of the working 
bees, being a heavier and sweeter substance. This special food 
seems to exercise such an energetic influence on the development 
of the ovaries, that simple workers which have accidentally re- 
ceived any of it, during their larval state, become pregnant and 
lay afew eggs. But this anomalous development remains imper- 
fect, because the prolific food was only administered in a small 
quantity. Besides which, the size of the cells is of great import- 
ance to the development of the larvee imprisoned in them; and 
so the larvze of working bees having lived in the small cells, can 
never attain the proportions of the queen, nor acquire her fecundity. 
But all this is changed if these larvee are moved into the large 
cells and fed on this royal pabulum ; they then become veritable 
queens. If, with us, the coat does not make the man nor the 
frock the monk, it is certain that with the bees the cradle helps 
materially to make the queen. 
When the queen through some accident or other has perished, 
the plebian population of the hive very quickly perceive the mis- 
fortune, and without losing time in useless regrets, apply them- 
selves to repair their loss. They choose the larva of a working 
bee, less than three days old, on which they bestow the treatment 
suited to change it into a female. The workers enlarge the cell 
of this grub by demolishing the surrounding cells, and administer 
to it a strong dose of royal food to effect its transformation. This 
marvellous metamorphosis is accomplished like those which one 
reads of in fairy tales, where so many poor beggars are changed, 
by a wave of the hand, into beautiful princesses, covered with gold 
and precious stones. Only here the fairy tale is a true story ; the 
poet’s dream a real phenomenon. According to Francis Huber, 
the larva intended to produce a female has to change its posi- 
tion. The workers add then to its domicile a sort of vertical tube, 
into which they push, and turn round the young grub, which is 
the hope of the community. For twelve days a bee, a sort of body- 
guard, has special charge of the person of our infant. It offers 
it food, and pays it many other delicate little attentions. When 
the moment for the metamorphosis has come, the orifice of the 
tube is closed, and the bees await the hatching of the new queen. 
Thus the loss of the queen is speedily replaced. The larve of the 
