BREEDINdJ. 71 



the figures vihh. the royal insect match ; recollect six- 

 teen days are all she has allowed ; then, of the different 

 stages, "three days in the egg, is five a wOrm, when 

 the bees close its cell, and it immediately begins its 

 cocoon, which is finished in twenty-four hours. Dur- 

 ing eleven days, and even sixteen hours of the twelfth, 

 it remains in a state of complete repose. Its trans- 

 formation into a nymph then takes place, in which 

 state four days and part of the fifth are passed." Now 

 let us add the items : 



The egg, 3 days. 



A worm, . ' 5 " 



Spinning a cocoon, (24 hours), .... 1 " 

 Eeposes eleven days and 16 hours, . . 11| " 

 A nymph four days, and part of the fifth, 4i " 



25 days. 

 Now, reader, what do you make of such palpable 

 blundering guess-work ? A difference of nine days — 

 the merest "school-boy ought to know better ! Can we 

 rely on such history? Does it not prove the necessity 

 of going over the whole ground, applying a test to 

 every assertion, and a revision of the whole matter 

 throughout? My object is not to find fault, but to 

 get Sit facts. When I see such guess-work as the above 

 published, to the' world, in this enlightetted age, 

 gravely told to the rising generation, as a portion of 

 natural history, I feel it a duty not to resist the incli- 

 nation to expose the absurdity. 



THE NUMBER OF EGOS DEPOSITED BY THE QUEEN GUESSED AT. 



The number of eggs that a q^uecn will deposit isofteij 



