14 HANDY BOOK OF BEtlS. 



you, however, that nothing of the kind ever takes place, 

 and that the ahsence of this power has doomed many a 

 colony to extinction. — Yours most sincerely, 



" J. "W. WOODBUET." 



On the receipt of this last letter, notice was specially 

 made of the fact that when a queen is produced from an 

 egg taken from a worker-cell, something more takes place 

 than the mere development of organs. Mr "Woodbury was 

 reminded that a queen is a different bee from a worker — 

 different in form, colour, habit, and lives six times as long 

 as a working bee. He wrote a third letter, part of which 

 will be quoted, as the rest is a repetition of what has gone 

 before. 



He says : " The development of queens from worker 

 eggs or grubs is without doubt a most marvellous trans- 

 formation, but I understand that we are both agreed that 

 it is not a change of sex. 



" The well-known singular effects of mutilation of, or 

 injuries to, the reproductive organs in man and in animals, 

 seem, however, to bear some slight analogy to the wonder- 

 ful development to which you refer. A eunuch has a 

 treble voice and no beard, whilst his hips become more 

 than ordinarily developed, and his limbs assume the 

 roundness of the female form. A woman with diseased 

 ovaries sometimes develops a beard and obtains the bass 

 voice of a man; whilst a hen in a similar condition may 

 assume the plumage and loud crow of the cock. AH these 

 instances apply rather to workers than to queens ; and it 

 may certainly be said, that in them som.ething more takes 

 place than the repression of organs which would otherwise 

 have been developed. The individuals affected may in 

 fact be pronounced quite different from others of their 

 kind ; but the marvel would, I think, become an actual 



