26 miner's AMERICAN 



the nature and habits of this insect, that is attainable by- 

 man ; and while many will pass these pages, with a hur- 

 ried glance, for those that reveal a knowledge, that 

 comes home to the pocket of the reader ; saying, " why 

 is this long useless expenditure of words upon queens, 

 workers, drones, fecundation, sex of workers, 6fC., SfC." 

 others will wish for a more lengthy and elaborate trea- 

 tise, on the same subject. 



The sex of workers is neither male txov female. They 

 appear to be strictly a phenomenon in nature, and by 

 many, are termed neuters. 



WORKERS SAID TO BE SOMETIMES FERTILE. 



The workers approximate very nearly in their internal 

 organization, to the queens, having ovaries like them, 

 but not so fully developed. In their natural capacity, 

 they never produce eggs ; yet it is contended, that under 

 peculiar circumstances workers exist, partaking of the 

 nature of queens, to a much greater extent, than in their 

 ordinary state ; and that such workers lay drone eggs 

 only. The most positive proof of this assertion, ever 

 given to the public, so far as I have been able to learn, 

 is adduced by Huber. He states, that having a hive in 

 which drone eggs only were produced, and believing its 

 legitimate queen to be lost, his servant caught every bee 

 in the hive, examined them carefully, made them show 

 their stings, in order to test their gender, as small males 

 are sometimes found that very nearly resemble workers, 

 which males have no sting; and he then put them into 

 a glass cylinder; and so on, to the very last, and not a 



