18 HANDY BOOK OF BEES. 



doing so she got on the part of the comb containing worker- 

 cells, where she found a dozen or more empty, in each of 

 which she laid one. The whole time, perhaps thirty- 

 minutes. Query, Was her series of drone-eggs exhausted 

 just at this time ? If so, it would appear that she was 

 not aware of it, because she examined several drone-cells, 

 after laying the last one there, before leaving that part of 

 the comb, and acted exactly as if she would have used 

 them had they not been preoccupied." 



" If food and treatment would create or produce organs 

 of generation in the female, by making an egg destined 

 for a worker into a queen (a fact which all apiarians ad- 

 mit), why not food and treatment make the drone 1 Is 

 the difficulty of developing one kind of sexual organs 

 greater than another]" 



" Other animals or insects usually produce the sexes 

 promiscuously. As we are ignorant of 'the causes decid- 

 ing sex in any case, we must acknowledge mystery to be- 

 long to both sides of the question. The stumbling-block 

 of more than two sexes which seems so necessary to make 

 plain, is no greater here than with some species of ants, 

 that have, as we are told, king, queen, soldier, and labourer 

 — four distinct and diiferent-formed bodies, all belonging 

 to one nest, and descended from one mother. Whether 

 they are four distinct kinds of eggs producing them, or 

 the power is given to the worker to develop such as are 

 wanted from one kind, we cannot say. If we make two 

 kinds of eggs only, it helps the matter but little. There 

 is still an anomaly." 



" I shall leave this matter for the present, hoping that 

 something conclusive may occur in the course of my ex- 

 periments or those of others. At present I am inclined 

 to think that the eggs are all alike, but am not fuUy 

 satisfied." 



