BTIEEDING. Il6 



to the death against a rival queen. She may live for four or 

 five years ; whereas the worker's life is limited to about six 

 weeks, except in the case of workers born at the close of 

 autumn, and surviving through the winter rest to labour for 

 a few weeks in the spring. So marvellous are the develop- 

 ments brought about by the simple process of feeding. 



199. Queen Brood. — The egg from which a queen is to be 

 reared, like the egg which is to produce a worker, hatches in 

 three days ; for six days more it continues in its larval state ; 

 it then spins its cocoon, is transformed into a nymph, and, on 

 the sixteenth day from the laying of the egg, it emerges a 

 perfect virgin queen. The vacant cell is never employed again 

 for queen rearing, but is cut down usually within a few hours 

 (71) as shown, I-ig. 14, C, H, page 36. Soon the young queen 

 begins her search over the combs for a rival, and if permitted, 

 she will destroy the unhatched virgin queens in their cells. 

 (20). A few days later, if the weather be favourable, she 

 leaves the hive for impregnation. (204). 



"Hardly had ten minutes elapsed after the young queen emerged 

 from her cell, when she began to look for sealed queen-cells. She 

 rushed furiously upon the first that she met, and, by dint of hard 

 work, made a small opening in the end. We saw her drawing, with 

 her mandibles, the silk of the cocoon, which covered the inside. But, 

 probably, she did not succeed according to her wishes, for she left the 

 lower end of the cell, and went to work on the upper end, where she 

 finally made a wider opening (Fig. 14, B). As soon as this was suffi- 

 ciently large, she turned about, to push her abdomen into it. She 

 made several motions, in different directions, till she succeeded in 

 striking her rival with the deadly sting. Then she left the cell ; and 

 the bees, which had remained, so far, perfectly passive, began to en- 

 large the gap which she had made, and drew out the corpse of a 

 queen just out of her nymphal shell. During this time, the victorious 

 young queen rushed to another queen-cell, and again made a large 

 opening, but she did not introduce her abdomen into it ; this second 

 cell containing only a royal-pupa not yet formed. There is some pro- 

 bability that, at this stage of development, the nymphs of queens 

 inspire less anger to their rivals; but they do not escape their doom; 

 for whenever a queen cell has been prematurely opened, the bees 

 throw out its occupant, whether worm, nymph, or queen. Therefore, 

 as soon as the victorious queen had left this second cell, the workers 

 enlarged the opening and drew out the nymph that it contained. 

 The young queen rushed to a third cell ; but she was unable to 

 open it. She worked languidly and seemed tired of her first efforts." 

 —Buber. 



200. Laying Workers — Although, as already stated (198), 

 the worker bee is incapable of being impregnated, there are 

 occasionally found, in a queenless hive, one or more workers 

 whose ovaries, partially developed, contain a certain quantity 



