122 THE LORE OF THE HONEY-BEE 



gland wherein is stored the male life-essence can 

 be opened or closed at the will of the mother-bee, 

 or rather, as will be shown, according to circum- 

 stances that for the moment involuntarily but 

 inexorably guide her. When she is brought to 

 the large drone-cell, this gland remains shut, and 

 the egg escapes without contact with its contents. 

 But at the narrow worker-cells the gland in the 

 oviduct is opened, and the egg, in passing, absorbs 

 some of its containing germs. Thus only the 

 female bee is born of the union of the two 

 parents ; the male bee is the offspring of mother 

 alone. 



Of this primal incident, the parthenogenesis, or 

 birth of the fully equipped male from the virgin 

 female, little more can be said than that it is a 

 well-ascertained fact of nature, exemplified in 

 several other insects beside the honey-bee. But 

 while we are witnessing the part played in the 

 hive by the fecundated queen, with her elaborate 

 organism, much is to be noted ; and here we really 

 get the master-key to a right understanding of the 

 whole system of bee-government. It would be an 

 anomaly if the highest, most important functions 

 of the State had been entrusted solely to the queen, 

 whose feeble intelligence renders her, of all others, 

 least likely to execute them properly ; and we find, 

 in fact, that no such reliance is placed on her. 

 The worker-bees, who take her in charge on her 

 return from her mating-flight, henceforth originate 



