Workers are Undeveloped Females. 109 
above theory. Langstroth and Berlepsch thought that 
these bees, while larva, were fed, though too sparingly, 
with the royal aliment, by bees in need of a queen, and 
hence the accelerated development. As.already stated, the 
queen larva is fed different and more abundant food than 
is the worker, and hence her accelerated and varied devel- 
opment. Is it not possible that these fertile workers 
Fic. 33. Fic. 34. 
B 
Ovaries of Worker Bee. 
Ovaries of Fertile Worker, 
receive an excess of food as larve? Again we have seen 
that fertile workers occur in hopelessly queenless colonies; 
and that queens are fed by the workers. May it not be 
that colonies hopelessly queenless take to feeding some 
special workers the chyle, and thus arise the fertile workers. 
These are interesting inquiries that await solution. The 
generative organs are very sensitive, and exceedingly sus- 
ceptible to impressions, and we may yet have much to 
learn as to the delicate forces which will move them to 
growth and activity. Though these fertile workers are a 
poor substitute for a queen, as they are incapable of pro- 
ducing any bees but drones, and are surely the harbingers 
of death and extinction to the colony, yet they seem to 
satisfy the workers, for often the latter will not brook 
the presence of a queen when a fertile worker is in the 
hive, frequently will not suffer the existence in the hive of 
a queen-cell, even though capped. They seem to be satis- 
fied, though they have very slight reason tobeso. These 
fertile workers lay indifferently in large or small cells— 
often place several eggs in a single cell, and show their 
