THE BBB. 



merest whisper of her ambitious designs. Besides, it wonld be 

 impossible for a common bee to become queen, as it is the 

 queen's sole business to populate the hive, and, as has already 

 been observed, the power of propagation is denied the working 

 bee. The physical diflferences between the queen bee and the 

 working bee are broad and unmistakable. The worker has 

 strong jaws to knead wax and carry building material ; the 

 jaws of the queen are delicate things, not half the size or 

 stoength : the workers have a long proboscis with which they 

 collect honey from flowers in their business jaunts ; it is no 

 business of the queen to gather honey, and so her proboscis is 

 just long enough to supply her ^with food, and that is all : the 

 worker's wings are a third longer than the queen's, though 'her 

 body is much longer and heavier than theirs ; her legs are 

 smooth and delicate, theirs are rough and hairy ; the sting of 

 the worker is long and strong — a Border spear, compared with 

 which the weapon of her majesty is the merest Stiletto. 



Thus you see, for a dozen reasons, a worker bee is vastly 

 different from a royal bee, and it would greatly puzzle the 

 united science of the whole world to transform the plebeian bee 

 into the royal. The secret, however, is known to the bees, and 

 is commonly practised by them : it is simply a matter of 

 commodious cradle-room and superior feeding. It has been 

 already observed that the cell of the worker egg is much 

 smaUer than that of the queen, and it may here be observed 

 that the food of the ,two when they reach larva-hood is like- 

 wise different. In the first three days royal and common grubs 

 are fed alike, on what naturalists call " royal " paste, which is 

 pure honey prepared in a certain way by the nurse-bees. After 

 the third day, however, a more common diet is substituted in 

 the case of the workers ; pollen is mixed with the honey, and 

 on this vulgar food they grow to be submissive labourers. In 

 the case of the royal larva the food is never changed — " royal " 

 paste is its sole food, and by-and-by it kicks out of its roomy 

 cradle a long-bodied, short-winged, thorough princess. 



Well, finding themselves without a queen and without a 

 royal egg, the workers select a cell nontaining a worker egg, 

 and at once proceed to demolish the partitions of the cells that 

 surround it, that it may have royal room. When the lucky 

 larva bursts into life, it is treated with the same attention as 

 though it was of royal stock ; nothing more common than 

 " royal " paste is ever offered it, and lo ! there presently issues 

 trom the jealously-guarded cell an insect " every inch" a queen. 



