210 ORGANIC EVOLUTION CONSIDERED 



First, all those instincts which the workers have 

 towards the queen, inducing them to guard and feed 

 her, to go in search of her when she has been absent 

 a certain length of time, to prevent her from destroying 

 the inchoate queens, and the instinct which leads 

 them to permit her to destroy such queens after the 

 swarming season is over. 



Also, the mortal antipathy which exists between 

 the queens could not have existed before the workers 

 were evolved, for its existence would have resulted in 

 the destruction of the colony. 



Nor could the instinct to rear a new queen have 

 existed when the colony was composed of fertile 

 females and drones alone, for the reason that the 

 emergency requiring a new queen could not have 

 existed in a hive where there was no queen and where 

 a large part of the colony must have consisted of fer- 

 tile females. 



As stated above, A. J. Cook says that any one of 

 five different conditions in the hive will lead to the 

 rearing of new queens. Each of these conditions indi- 

 cates an acquired instinct in the workers which looks 

 to the good of the colony and the preservation of the 

 species. 



Again, the workers build drone cells, or worker 

 cells, regulating their work according to the neces- 

 sities of the case — taking notice of the numbers of 

 different kinds of bees in the colony, the supply of 

 food, and of probable future requirements. If the 

 hive is destitute of a queen they gather less pollen 

 than when a queen is present, thus regulating the 

 supply to meet the probable demand. If the supply 

 of food becomes insufficient, they destroy the inchoate 

 young, which would otherwise perish by famine. 



The instinct of the workers to destroy the drones 

 after the swarming season is over, or, in case the hive 



