192 DEVELOPMENT AND HEREDItV. 



Thus the queen lives with her handmaids several 

 weeks, — about three months, — continually adding 

 to their number. As a rule, about July, young of a 

 much larger size emerge, likewise resembling the 

 queen, the so-called ' small females,' or large workers, 

 — -i.e. females whose reproductive organs are devel- 

 oped, but who generally only produce drone eggs, 

 though under certain circumstances they can lay 

 eggs which hatch into females or workers. These 

 large workers and the small workers and the old 

 female, all three kinds, now lay drone eggs in large 

 numbers, from which males are hatched. Not till 

 the end of the summer does the mother again lay 

 queen eggs. There exists now, therefore, in the 

 family — (i) the old queen, who is perfectly incapa- 

 ble of flight and destitute of hairs ; (2) numerous 

 young queens ; (3) the ordinary or small workers ; (4) 

 the large workers or small females ; (5) the drones or 

 males. All the workers throughout the summer fly 

 forth to collect, about a quarter of an hour before 

 sunrise, awakened by a peculiar humming, the voice 

 of the trumpeter. The males also go forth to the 

 fields, but only from ten in the morning to four in 

 the afternoon, and only for themselves. They do 

 no work in the nest — although Hoffer saw them 

 occasionally assist, but only when the roof was taken 

 away from the nest. On fine sunny days in July, 



