114 HUMBLE CREATURES. 



and position of the cell were complied ■with, pre- 

 cisely the same as in the case of the queen, it is 

 quite clear that the worker-larva (which we know to 

 proceed from an egg similarly fertilized to that of a 

 queen) would in due time become metamorphosed, 

 not iuto a worker-hee, hut into a queen, with fiilly 

 developed organs of reproduction. 



Whether this is known to the Bees, or only to 

 their Creator, we are unable to say ; but certain it is, 

 that when deprived of their queen, they at once pro- 

 ceed to a cell containing a worker-egg not yet hatched, 

 or, wonderful to relate, a larva not more than three 

 days old (the time, you must remember, when, under 

 ordinary circumstances, its food would be changed !), 

 and they at once alter the conditions of its early 

 existence, so as to convert it into a queen. 



They enlarge the worker-cell by the destruction of 

 those surroimding, slaughter the inmates without 

 mercy, and, by the union of the horizontal ones that 

 have been destroyed, form a single vertical cradle ; 

 they then continue to feed the young larva upon 

 royal paste during the whole of the first period of 

 her life, and treat her in every respect as the future 

 heiress to the throne, into which she ia due time 

 becomes metamorphosed. 



With the account of this phenomenon, which 

 displays more strikingly than any yet alluded to the 

 omnipotence of the Creator in the adaptation of 

 means to ends, we must now draw this brief narra- 

 tive of Bee-life to a close. But, before concluding. 



