GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS. 17 



no longer nurse the brood, they wither more and more, till 

 they become shrunken and seemingly dried. Hence Maurice 

 Girard, and others before him, have concluded very rationally 

 that these upper glands produce the milky food given to the 

 larvae, during the first days of their development. Mr. Ches- 

 hire has confirmed the very reasonable theory that the queen, 

 during the time of egg-laying, is fed by the workers from 

 the secretions of this gland. 



Fig. 7. 



LONGITUDINAL SECTION THROUGH HEAD OF WORKER. 



(Magnified 14 times. From Chesliire.) 



a, antenna, with tliree muscles attacbed to m«p, meso-cephalic pillar; 

 cl clypeus ; Ibr, labrum or upper lip ; No. 1, upper salivary or chyle 

 gland (this gland really runs in front of the meso-cephalic pillars, but 

 here the latter are kept in view) ; o, opening cf same in the mouth ; 00, 

 ocellus or simple eye ; eg, cephalic ganglion, or brain system ; n, neck ; 

 th, thorax; oe, oesophagus cr gullet; sa, 2, 3, salivary ducts of glands 

 two and three ; m, salivary valve ; pZi pharynx ; lb, labium or lower 

 lip, with its parts separated for display ; mt, mentum or chin ; mo, 

 mouth ; mx, maxilla ; Tp, labial palpi ; I, ligula or tongue ; B, boutcn. 



40. "The queen at certain periods has tlie power of prcj- 

 ducing between 2,000 and 3,000 eggs daily (98). A careful 

 calculation shows that 90,000 of these would occupy a cubic 

 inch and weigh 270 grains. So that a good queen, for days or 

 even weeks* in succession, would deposit, _ every twenty-four 



• These facts have been demonstrated so repeatedly, that they are 

 as well established as the most common laws in the breeding cf our 

 domestic' animals. 



