THE HONEY-BEE. 



there are worker-eggs in the hive, and these are only 

 two or three days old, a cell containing one such egg 

 is selected, and enlarged by breaking down the sur- 

 rounding partitions. The shape and direction of the 

 cell are also altered, being made pyriform, or like a 

 pear, and with its open end downwards. The royal 

 cradle, in fact, is made to look like a small acorn-cup 

 inverted. In this abode is deposited a certain amount 

 of so-called " royal jelly," a more pungent and sti- 

 mulating food than that supplied to other larvae, 

 and consisting of a mixture of honey and partially 

 digested pollen. Under the influence of this nourish- 

 ment, the grub, instead of becoming a worker-bee, as 

 it would have done in the usual course of events, 

 undergoes all those important modifications which 

 distinguish the queen from her ordinary offspring ; 

 and, moreover, the necessary transformations from 

 the larval to the perfect condition of the insect are 

 so expedited as to take only sixteen, instead of 

 twenty-one, days. We have said that, if newly-laid 

 eggs exist, these are preferred by the workers for their 

 purpose of queen manufacture ; but they will, if shut 

 up to the necessity, thus transform worker-larvae, if 

 not full grown. Usually, when prompted in this 

 way to provide themselves with a hive-mother, they 

 begin, not one only, but several, apparently to secure 

 themselves against all danger of failure. But the 

 first which comes to maturity assumes the sovereignty, 

 and, unless the condition of the stock requires the 

 speedy emission of a swarm, she will be allowed to 

 gratify hef instinctive enmity to rivals, and will destroy 

 them as they are ready to emerge from their cells. 

 This hatred of equals is an extraordinary fact, 



