NATURAL HISTORY OT THE BEE. 73 



for in eight days more, — or about the sixteenth day 

 after the egg was laid (instead of twenty-one in the 

 case of a worker, and twenty-five in the case of a 

 drone), it is ready to cut its way out, and to come 

 forth, a beautiful young princess ; soon to become a 

 perfect queen, and to begin to lay eggs. 



What this food, or royal jelly, is, or whether there 

 is anything else done or given, which turns the 

 worker-egg into a queen-bee we do not know, but 

 the fact is most extraordinary, for this queen-bee is, 

 in many ways, a very different insect from the 

 worker, which the very same egg would have pro- 

 duced, if it had not been treated to the large cell and 

 the royal jelly. 



As an illustration of this difference we may take 

 the case of two dogs — the one a greyhound and the 

 other a pug. If we put them side by side, the 

 contrast is most striking. What can be more unlike, — 

 the one with its slender legs, lithe body, beautiful 

 pointed head, and quick, graceful movements, and the 

 other with its short legs, square body, blunt nose and 

 head, and ungainly movements? And yet there is 

 not really so much difference between them, as 

 between a queen and a worker-bee. 



The difference between the dogs is in shape more 

 than in anything else. They have mouth, and jaws, 

 and teeth, in all points the same except shape. And 

 it is the same with every part of their legs and bodies ; 

 they have the same bones and muscles, and internal 

 organs, however greatly they vary in size and ap- 

 pearance. 



But in the case of the queen-bee, she not only has 



