OR, MANUAL OJf THB APIARY. 117 



times passes from drone to worker cells very abruptly while 

 laying, as I have witnessed such a procedure — the same that 

 so greatly rejoiced the late Baron of Berlepsch, after weary 

 hours of watching — but that she can thus control at the in- 

 stant this process of adding or withholding the sperm-cells 

 certainly seems not so strange as that the spermatheca, hardly 

 bigger than a pin-head, could supply these cells for months, 

 yes, and for years. Who that has seen the bot-fly dart against 

 the horse's legs, and as surely leave the tiny yellow egg, can 

 doubt but that insects possess very sensitive oviducts, and can 

 extrude the minute eggs just at pleasure. That a queen may 

 force single eggs at will, past the mouth of the spermatheca, 

 and at the same time add or withhold the sperm-cells, is, I 

 think, without question true. What gives added force to this 

 view is the fact that other bees, wasps and ants exercise the 

 same volition, and can have no aid from cell-pressure, as all 

 the eggs are laid in receptacles of the same size. As already 

 remarked, the males and workers of Apis dorsata are developed 

 in the same sized cells, while the males of A. indica aie smaller 

 than the workers. The Baron of Berlepsch, worthy to be a 

 friend of Dzierzon, has fully decided the matter. He has shown 

 that old drone-cells are as small as new worker-cells, and each 

 harbors its own brood. Very small queens, too, make no mis- 

 takes. With no drone-cells, the queen will sometimes lay 

 drone-eggs in worker-cells, in which drones will then be reared, 

 and she will, if she must, though with great reluctance, lay 

 worker-eggs in drone-cells. 



Before laying an egg the queen takes a look into the cell, 

 probably to see if all is right. If the cell contains any honey, 

 pollen, or an egg, she usually passes it by, though, when 

 crowded, a queen will sometimes, especially if young, insert 

 two or three eggs in a cell, and sometimes, when in such cases 

 she drops them, the bees show their dislike of waste, and 

 appreciation of good living, by making a breakfast of them. 

 If the queen find the cell to her liking, she turns about, inserts 

 her abdomen, and in an instant the tiny egg is glued in posi- 

 tion (Fig. 39, *) to the bottom of the cell. 



The queen, when considered in relation to the other bees 

 of the colony, possesses a surprising longevity. It is not un- 



