72 Mating of the Queen. 



day of her lady-ship the queen, or extra respect paid her as a 

 virgin. When queens are started from worker larvae, they 

 will issue as imagos in ten or twelve days from the date of 

 their new prospects. Mr. Doolittle writes me that he has 

 known them tn issue in eight and one-half days. My own ob- 

 servations sustain the assertion of Mr. P. L. Viallon that the 

 minimum time is nine and one-half days. 



As the queen's development is probably due to superior 

 quality and increased quantity of food, it would stand to 

 reason that queens started from eggs are preferable ; the more 

 so as, under normal circumstances, I believe they are almost 

 always thus started. The best experierlte sustains this posi- 

 tion. As the proper food and temperature can best be 

 secured in a full colony^ — and here agaiti the natural economy 

 of the hive adds to our argument- — we should infer that the 

 best queens would be reared in strong colonies, or at least kept 

 in such colonies till the cells were capped. Experience also 

 confirms this view. As the quantity and quality of food and 

 the general activity of the bees are directly connected with 

 the full nourishment of the queen-larva, and as these are 

 only at the maximum in times of active gathering — the time 

 when queen-rearing is naturally started by the bees — we 

 should also conclude that queens reared at such seasons are 

 superior. My experience — and I have carefully observed in 

 this connection — most emphatically sustains this view. 



Five or six days after issuing from the cell — Neighbour 

 says the third day — if the day is pleasant the queen goes forth 

 on her "marriage flight;" otherwise she will improve the first 

 pleasant day thereafter for this purpose. Huber was the first 

 to prove that impregnation always takes place on the wing. 

 Bonnet also proved that the same is true of ants, though in 

 this case millions of queens and drones often swarm out at 

 once. I have myself witnessed several of these wholesale 

 matrimonial excursions among ants. I have also frequently 

 taken bumble-bees that were copulating while on the wing. I 

 have also seen both ants and bumble-bees fall while united, 

 probably borne down by the expiring males. That butterflies, 

 moths, dragon-flies, etc., mate on the wing is a matter of 

 common observation. It has generally been thought impossi- 

 ble for queens in confinement to be impregnated. Prof. 

 Leuckart believes that successful mating demands that the 



