HABITS AND INTELLIGENCE OF BEES 141 



instinct which leads them, in the event of the loss 

 of their queen, to take a young worker grub or egg, 

 and, by special feeding and the enlargement of its 

 cell, to rear from it a new queen. It has been 

 proved that parthenogenesis always prevails in the 

 production of the male bee, the egg which produces a 

 drone being always unimpregnated even when laid 

 by an impregnated queen. A virgin queen will also 

 lay eggs abundantly, and it has been conclusively 

 proved that these eggs will come to maturity, and 

 that they will invariably produce drones. Now, 

 the bees always build a certain quantity of what is 

 called drone-comb, in which the cells are larger than 

 ordinary, and it is in these cells, and in these only, 

 that the queen lays the eggs which produce drones. 

 A knowledge of this circumstance first led to the 

 assumption that the sex of the young bee was deter- 

 mined simply by the size of its cell, but this theory 

 was soon abandoned, as it is settled beyond doubt 

 that the sex of the egg is determined at the very 

 moment at which it is laid. The theorists were then 

 driven back on an ingenious explanation as to the 

 mechanical effect of the shape of the ceU upon the 

 queen in the act of depositing the egg. This view 

 has, however, also been rendered untenable by the 

 result of experiments which place it beyond question 

 that the sex of the eggs is altogether independent of 

 the shape or size of the ceUs in which they are laid ; 

 for, with no drone-comb, the queen will sometimes 

 lay drone-eggs in worker cells, from which eggs 

 drones will be produced, and she will also, if necessary, 

 though with great reluctance, lay worker-eggs in 

 drone-cells. It would thus appear that we must 

 concede to the queen bee the surprising instinct or 



