THE QUEEN BEE. 51 



though guided by intelligence, conduct it to the micropyle when 

 the egg passes within the fertilising pouch, on its road towards 

 being laid in a worker cell. The wondrous thread enters, coales- 

 ces with the germ (of matter within the egg), brings about fer- 

 tilisation, and affects the resulting sex in a female bee, either a 

 worker or a queen."* Had not this egg passed within the fertil- 

 ising pouch, and had not the wondrous thread referred to entered 

 the micropyle of the egg, it would have passed out through the 

 ova-depositor, and its sexual characteristic would have been mascu- 

 line; but that "wondrous thread" differentiates the whole creature, 

 and an egg is deposited that will produce a queen — a perfect and 

 complete female, capable of sexual intercourse and capable of re- 

 producing its species, but unable to administer in the slightest 

 degree to the wants of its progeny; or a female, a working bee, 

 perfect in all her anatomical parts, but incomplete— that is, the 

 spermatheca is incapable of reception, and the only female instinct 

 she possesses is that of nursing. We know little of the growth of 

 the egg from its embyronic stage to its maturity other than that 

 which differentiates its sex. I have already explained that an egg 

 which is to produce a male bee in whatsoever cell it is laid, the 

 result is the same — a drone. Not so with the egg under review. ■ 

 Contact between that "wondrous thread" and the aperture in the 

 eigg does not fix the question whether it shall be a queen or a 

 worker; it only fixes the fact as to gender. The egg tnat has 

 received the life-germ from the spermatheca will produce a female; 

 but it does not settle the question as to its future destiny. The 

 queen, the workers, and the bee-master have that under control. 

 [The question whether the queen can lay an egg at will that shall 

 produce a male or female bee will be dealt with when treating 

 of drones.] Under ordinary circumstances the locality in which 

 the egg is laid determines the position the bee will occupy in the 

 future domestic economy of the hive. The laying of the egg in 

 the cell in the first instance is controlled by the queen. Circum- 

 stances only decide whether it shall be deposited in a, worker or a 

 queen cell. If the egg be permitted to remain in the worker cell, 

 it will develop a worker bee; but if it retains its position in the 

 queen cell, a queen bee is the result. The circumstances that con- 

 trol these productions are many; naturally, the seasons; but even 

 these are subject to great variations. An early spring, with an 



*Cheshire. 



