NATURAL HISTORY OF THE HONBT BEE. 43 



chiefly because of his having hazarded the unfortunate con- 

 jecture that the place of the poison bag in the worker, is 

 occupied in the Queen, by the spermatheca. Now this is 

 ao completely contrary to fact, that it was a very natural 

 inference, that this acute and thoroughly honest observer, 

 made no microscopic dissections of the insects which he 

 examined. I consider myself peculiarly fortunate in having 

 obtained the aid of a Naturalist, so celebrated as Dr. Leidy, 

 for microscopic dissections. The exceeding minuteness of 

 some of the insects which he has completely figured and 

 described, almost passes belief. 



On examining this same colony a few days laler, I found 

 the most satisfactory evidence that these drone eggs were 

 laid by the Queen which I had removed. No fresh eggs 

 had been deposited in the cells, and the bees, on missing 

 her, had commenced the construction of royal cells, to rear 

 if possible, another Queen, which they would not have done, 

 if a fertile worker had been present, by which the drone 

 eggs had been laid. 



Another very interesting fact proves that all the eggs laid 

 by this Queen, were drone eggs. Two of the royal cells 

 were, in a short time, discontinued, and were found to be 

 empty, while a third contained a worm, which was sealed 

 over the usual way, to undergo its changes to a perfect 

 Queen. 



I was completely at a loss to account for this, as the bees 

 having an unimpregnated drone-laying Queen, ought not to 

 have had a single female egg from which they could rear a 

 Queen. 



At first I imagined that they might have stolen it from 

 another hive, but when I opened this cell, it contained, 

 instead of a Queen, a dead drone I 



I then remembered that Huber has described the same 



