OR, MANUAI< OP THS APIARY. 131 



accident. The fact, as stated by Mr. Quinby, that th^se occur 

 in colonies -where queen-larvas were never reared, is fatal to 

 the above theory. L,ang-stroth and Berlepsch thought that 

 these bees, vfhile larv», were fed, though too sparingly, with 

 the royal aliment, by bees in need of a queen, and hence the 

 accelerated development. As already stated, the queen-larva 

 is fed different and more abundant food than is the worker, 

 and hence her accelerated and varied development. Is it not 

 possible that these laying workers receive an excess of food 

 as larvae ? Again, we have seen that laying workers occur in 

 hopelessly queenless colonies ; and that queens are fed by the 

 workers. May it not be that colonies hopelessly queenless 

 take to feeding some special workers the chyle, and thus arise 

 the laying workers ? These are interesting inquiries that 

 await solution. The generative organs are very sensitive, 

 and exceedingly susceptible to impressions, and we may yet 

 have much to learn as to the delicate forces which will move 

 them to growth and activity. Though these laying workers 

 are a poor substitute for a queen, as they are incapable of 

 producing any bees but drones, and are surely the harbingers 

 of death and extinction to the colony,, yet they seem to satisfy 

 the workers, for often the latter will not brook the presence of 

 a queen when a laying worker is in the hive, frequently will 

 not suffer the existence in the hive of a queen-cell, even though 

 capped. They seem to be satisfied, though they have very 

 slight reason to be so. These laying workers lay indifferently 

 in large or small cells — often place several eggs in a single 

 cell, and show their incapacity in various ways. Laying 

 workers seem to appear more quickly and in greater abundance 

 in colonies of Cyprian and Syrian bees, after they become 

 hopelessly queenless, than in Italian colonies. 



The maxillse and labium of the worker-bee (Fig. 56) are 

 much elongated (Fig. 54). The maxillae (Fig. 54, A, mx, mx) 

 are deeply grooved, and are hinged to the head by strong 

 chitinous rods (Fig. 54, A, c, c, St, St), to which are attached 

 the muscles which move these parts. The gutter-like extremi- 

 ties (Fig. 54, A, I, I) are stiffened with chitine, and, when 

 approximated, form a tube which is continued by a membrane 

 to the mouth-opening of the pharynx, just between the bases 



