PHYSIOLOGY. 41 



special knowledge or will on the subject. He supposes that 

 when she deposits her eggs in the worker cells, her body- 

 is slightly compressed by the size of the cells, and that the 

 eggs, as they pass the spermatheca, receive in this manner, 

 its vivifying influence. On the contrary, when she is egg- 

 laying in drone cells, this compression cannot take place, the 

 mouth of the spermatheca is kept closed, and the eggs are, 

 necessarily, unfecundated. This theory may prove to be 

 true, but at present, it is encumbered with some difficulties 

 and requires further investigation, before it can be considered 

 as fully established. 



Leaving then the question whether the Queen exercises 

 any volition in this matter, for the present undecided, I shall 

 state some facts which occurred in the summer of 1852, in 

 my own Apiary, and shall then endeavor to relieve, as far as 

 possible, this intricate subject from some of the difficulties 

 which embarrass it. 



In the Autumn of 1S52, my assistant found, in one of 

 my hives, a young Queen, the whole of whose progeny was 

 drones. The colony had been formed by removing part of 

 the combs containing bees, brood and eggs from another 

 hive. It had only a few combs, and but a small number of 

 bees. They raised a new Queen in the manner which will 

 hereafter be particularly described. This Queen had laid 

 a number of eggs in one of the combs, and the young bees 

 from some of them were already emerging from the cells. 

 I perceived, at the first glance, that they were drones. As 

 there were none but worker cells in the hive, they were 

 reared in them, and not having space for full development, 

 they were dwarfed in size, although the bees, in order to 

 give them more room, had pieced out the cells so as to make 

 them larger than usual ! Size excepted, they appeared as 

 perfect as any other drones. 

 4* 



