42 PHYSIOLOGY AND BEEEDING. 



sant." Where in the whole round of animated nature is 

 there a female producing hundreds of thous9,nds of eggs 

 in a life time ? We have heard of a kind of ant that ex- 

 ceeds even this, but we are not familiar with it. In ani- 

 mated nature, as far as our observation extends, eggs are 

 usually produced in series of dozens or hundreds, and the 

 male is met for each brood. A female may produce one 

 brood or more, but the queen will, under some circum- 

 stances, continue an uninterrupted series from January to 

 October. One impregnation is operative for a life time. 

 Is there not wisdom in thus economizing the vital fluid, 

 and using it only when necessary ? 



But eggs of some animals are impregnated after their 

 formation, even after they are discharged, as is the case 

 with those of most kinds offish, frogs, etc. The providing 

 of the sac or receptacle of the queen, is an admirable dis- 

 play of the wisdom of the Creator, in adapting means to 

 ends. Mr. Harbison's supposition that because the ovaries 

 of the queen are separated into two equal parts, that 

 when the queen produces Only drones, one side is imper- 

 fectly developed, does not enlighten us much, even if we 

 admit it. I see no reason why the side in which the drone 

 eggs are formed, should not sometimes be imperfectly de- 

 veloped as well as the other, and we occasionally have a 

 queen that lays no drone eggs ; such a case has never been 

 reported, to my knowledge. That she " fully understands 

 that eggs from one division will produce drones, and the 

 other, workers," I can not comprehend any better than 

 that she would understand equally well when a drone egg 

 was about to be laid, if they were all formed in one mass. 

 If drone and worker eggs were separated in two divisions, 

 it would seem that the mass of each would be proportion- 

 ate in size to the quantity laid of each ; but they are 

 represented as alike in size. Perhaps no one would dis- 

 pute it if 1 gnould say that hundreds of one kind arc laid 



