68 THE BEE AS AN INSECT. [Ch. I. 



connection between sex and cells, which, if it be not 

 paradoxical to say so, is as a general rule invariable ; 

 that is to say, when both the queen and the hive are in 

 a normal condition, the eggs laid in each class of cells 

 produce respectively workers and drones without failure 

 or exception. But in abnormal circumstances, as with a 

 drone-breeding queen, the law does not hold, and drones 

 of a diminished size are hatched from worker cells, 

 though the bees, on discovering the state of things, do 

 their best by subsequent elongation to adapt the cradles 

 to their unexpected occupants. Such is the explanation 

 of the existence of " small drones ; " but workers hatched 

 in drone cells do not appear to be in any way peculiar. 

 In regard then to the main fact we are confronted 

 with the question, Has the queen a knowledge, at the 

 moment of laying, of the gender of each particular egg ? 

 Rather, it would seem, she has the power of making it 

 what gender she pleases by compressing her spermatheca 

 or not at the instant of its passing down her oviduct. 

 We must however refer to an ingenious theory to the 

 contrary, quoted by Langstroth as started by his friend 

 the late Mr. Wagner of Philadelphia, and which has been 

 approved by many in this country and Germany also. 

 It is to the effect that not the queen's own will, but the 

 narrow limits of the worker cells, administer the above 

 compression, while the more spacious drone cells allow 

 her body to be inserted without such effect. Von 

 Berlepsch however, it is safe to say, has absolutely 



