PHYSiOLoay. 69 



the coming summer to obtain from this able analytical 

 chemist, an analysis of the food of the young drones and 

 workers. A comparison of its elements with those of the 

 royal jelly, may throw some light on subjects as yet involved 

 in obscurity. 



The effects produced upon the larvse by this peculiar 

 food and method of treatment, are very remarkable. For 

 one, I have never considered it strange that such effects 

 should be rejected as idle whims, by nearly all except those 

 who have either been eye-vifitnesses to them, or have been 

 virell acquainted with the character and opportunities for 

 accurate observation, of those on whose testimony they have 

 received them. They are not only in themselves most mar- 

 velously strange, but on the face of them so entirely op- 

 posed to all common analogies, and so very improbable, 

 that many men when asked to believe ihera, feel almost 

 as though an insult were offered to their common sense. 

 The most imponant of these effects, I shall now proceed to 

 enumerate. 



1st. The peculiar mode in which the worm designed to 

 be reared as a queen, is treated, causes it to arrive at matu- 

 rity, about one-third earlier than if it had been bred a 

 worker. And yet it is "to be much more fully developed, 

 and according to ordinary analogy, ought to have had a 

 slower groioth ! 



2d. Its organs of reproduction are completely developed, 

 so that it is capable of fulfilling the office of a mother. 



3d. Its size, shape and color are all greatly changed. 

 (See p. 32.) Its lower jaws are shorter, its head rounder, 

 and its legs have neither brushes nor baskets, while its sting 

 is more curved, and one-third longer than that of a worker. 



4th. Its instincts are entirely changed. Eeared as a 

 worker, it would have been ready to thrust out its sting, 



