FERTILE WORKERS AND BLACK BEES. 33 
be provisionally accounted for on the theory of Von 
Berlepsch and Langstroth, that the jelly had been 
purposely supplied to it when at the proper stage, 
but the design abandoned, and the royal cell never 
completed. This explanation is better than the one 
offered by Huber, that the jelly had dropped into 
the cell by accident. 
These fertile workers devote themselves wholly to 
the office of drone-producers, and hence apparently 
they never fly forth for the purpose of honey-gather- 
ing. On this assumption it has been recommended 
by Mr. Rorl, as a ready means of destroying such 
a pest, to drive out all the bees into an empty hive, 
which is to be set up in another part of the garden; 
all the bees accustomed to flying will at once find 
their way back to their former home, but the one in 
question will not know the way, and will thus either 
be lost at once, or enter a wrong hive and be 
promptly despatched. 
The term ‘black bees,” when used to denote a 
kind of monstrosity (for very often, unfortunately, it is 
also applied to distinguish brown bees from Italians), 
refers to individuals of a darker colour than the 
rest, and destitute of the ordinary downy coat. The 
former feature is now declared to be the result of 
nothing more than a smearing with honey, while the 
latter is traced to a habit of creeping through navr- 
row crevices. They are old-addicted robbers, says 
Dzierzon, and both these characteristics may be 
taken to point to such a verdict. 
It appears, however, that really black worker bees 
have been met with—sometimes with the addition 
D 
