S6 BEEEDING. 



Hence it would appear reasonable, if sex was decide?! 

 by the ovaries of the queen, in one case, it wouM be 

 in another. 



To allow the bees the powerof makingthree kinds of 

 bees from one kind of eggs, which would be virtually 

 constituting a third sex, an anomaly not often found. 

 The drones being males, and workers imperfect fe- 

 males with generative organs undeveloped, renders 

 the anomaly of the third sex unnecessary. On the 

 other side it might be said in reply : That if food and 

 treatment would create or produce organs of genera- 

 tion in the female, by rnaking an egg destined for a 

 worker into a queen, (a fact which all apiarians admit,) 

 why not food and treatment make the drone ? Is 

 the difficulty of developing one kind of sexual organs 

 greater than another? 



Eespecting the anomaly of the eggs of some queens 

 producing only drones, the question might be asked. 

 Is this more of an anomaly than that of ordinary 

 queens which are said to germinate eggs in distinct 

 series ? It is all out of -the usual line. Other animals 

 or insects usually produce the sexes promiscuously. 

 As we are ignorant of causes deciding sex in any case, 

 we must acknowledge mystery to belong to both sides 

 of the question here. The stumbling-block of more 

 • than two sexes, which seems so necessary to make 

 plain, is no greater here than with some species of 

 ants, that have, as we are told, kin^, queen,' soldier' 

 and laborer. Four distinct and differently formed 

 bodies, all belonging to one nest, and descended from 

 one mother. Whether there are four distinct kinds of 



