The Nuptial Flight 
tical brain. She has but one thought, 
which is to rid herself as quickly as pos- 
sible of the embarrassing souvenirs her 
consort has left her, whereby her move- 
ments are hampered. She seats herself 
on the threshold, and carefully strips off 
the useless organs, that are borne far away 
by the workers; for the male has given 
her all he possessed, and much more than 
she requires. She retains only, in her 
spermatheca, the seminal liquid where 
millions of germs are floating, which, un- 
til her last day, will issue one by one, as 
the eggs pass by, and in the obscurity of 
her body accomplish the mysterious union 
of the male and female element, whence 
the worker-bees are born. Through a 
curious inversion, it is she who furnishes 
the male principle, and the drone who 
provides the female. Two days after the 
union she lays her first eggs, and her 
people immediately surround her with the 
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