I 50 Life and Love. 



so as to retard nutrition below a certain point, the 

 reproductive period is hastened, not as a sign of 

 abundant nutrition, but of the exact opposite. 

 Here, as elsewhere, we find opposite causes pro- 

 ducing hke results. 



It is an interesting fact that abundant nutriment 

 favors the production of females; thus, certain 

 insects, during the season of the most abundant 

 food supply, lay eggs from which issue females, 

 while the later, less weil-nourished eggs give birth 

 to males. 



During a prosperous season, too, or for several 

 successive prosperous seasons, females may be the 

 only forms produced, the eggs containing vitality 

 enough to develop without fertilization. Now 

 comes a change, food grows scarce, the less well- 

 nourished female lays eggs, and from them issue 

 males ! 



The fertilized, therefore better nourished, eggs 

 of the queen bee develop into queens or workers, 

 which are imperfect females, while the unfertilized, 

 ill-nourished eggs are those from which proceed 

 drones. The young queens, too, are fed upon a 

 specially nourishing food, which enables them to 

 perfect the female type. 



Even in the higher forms of life the sex of the 

 offspring is intimately associated with nutrition, — 

 abundant nutrition resulting in the formation of 

 females ; scant nutrition, of males. 



This does not necessarily mean that the con- 



