l6o FIELD ZOOLOGY. 



with reasoning power by which they might know 

 when to build queen cells. It would hardly seem that 

 the queen would give the signal herself ; for the appearance 

 of a new queen brings her two possibilities which she must 

 face — the end of her reign over a united community, or 

 death — generally the latter. At any rate, the stimulus 

 is given and the eggs are laid. Occasionally the cell is 

 built up around an egg already laid. These are the royal 

 larvae which hatch from these eggs, and each is fed by 

 several nurse-workers in constant attendance, feeding 

 bee jelly for the five larval days. After these five days 

 of constant feeding, the nurses place a mass of bee jelly 

 beside the old larva and cap the cell, and in seven days 

 more, there appears the full-grown queen. This bee jelly, 

 on which the royal larva is fed, is a highly metamorphosed 

 honey product elaborated in the body of the worker and 

 fed to the larva by regurgitation. So far as known, it is 

 the feeding which makes the difference in the individuals 

 resulting from the two fertilized eggs, the one in the worker 

 cell and the one in the queen cell. The royal larva is fed 

 longer, constantly, and with richer food than is the worker 

 larva. 



The appearance of the queen is heralded by a curious 

 piping noise which the old queen answers, and the battle 

 is on. If the old queen attempts to attack the young 

 queen the workers usually protect the young queen, at 

 least a portion of them may so decide to do; this may 

 result in the migrating of a portion of the hive with the 

 old queen leaving the new queen in possession of the 

 remaining bees in the hive. If more queens than one 

 issue at one time, there may follow a series of battles in 

 which it is decided which one among them is to stay 

 with the hive ; or there will be a series of swarmings which 



