THE YOUNG QUEENS 147 



But, on the other hand, how shall we explain to ourselves the 

 aim that nature can have in thus favouring the valueless drones 

 at the cost of the workers who are so essential ? Is she 

 afraid lest the females might perhaps be induced by their in- 

 tellect unduly to limit the number of their parasites, which, 

 destructive though they be, are still necessary for the preserva- 

 tion of the race ? Or is it merely an exaggerated reaction 

 against the misfortune of the unfruitful queen ? Can we have 

 here one of those blind and extreme precautions which, ig- 

 noring the cause of the evil, overstep the remedy, and, in 

 the endeavour to prevent an unfortunate accident, bring about 

 a catastrophe ? In reality — though we must not forget that 

 the natural, primitive reality is different from that of the 

 present, for in the original forest the colonies might well be 

 far more scattered than they are to-day — in reality the queen's 

 unfruitfulness will rarely be due to the want of males, for 

 these are very numerous always, and will flock from afar ; but 

 rather to the rain or the cold, that will have kept her too 

 long in the hive, and more frequently still to the imperfect 

 state of her wings, whereby she will be prevented from de- 

 scribing the high flight in the air that the organ of the male 

 demands. Nature, however, heedless of these more intrinsic 

 causes, is so deeply concerned with the multiplication of males, 

 that we sometimes find, in mothei'less hives, two or three 

 workers possessed of so great a desire to preserve the race 

 that, their atrophied ovaries notwithstanding, they will still en- 

 deavour to lay; and, their organs expanding somewhat beneath 

 the empire of this exasperated sentiment, they will succeed 

 in depositing a few eggs in the cells ; but from these eggs, as 

 from those of the virgin mother, there will issue only males. 



