84 METAMOEPHOSES OF MAN 



fact has been incontestably proved by the observa- 

 tions of Reaumur, Schirach, and Huber. The cell 

 which contains the larva of the queen bee, or, in other 

 words, that of the egg-laying insect, is much larger 

 and better constructed than any of the others. More- 

 over the future monarch is supplied with a peculiar 

 form of food. When the bees wish to produce a 

 queen, they break down several intercellular parti- 

 tions, and enlarge and strengthen some of the cells ; 

 next, they supply the larvae they contain with that 

 peculiar food which is reserved for royal mouths 

 alone; and under the stimulating influence of this 

 new system of diet and hygiene, those larvae which 

 would, under other circumstances, have proved neuters, 

 are converted into fertile females, capable of laying 

 from thirty to forty thousand eggs. Furthermore, 

 should any of this prolific patee fall into the neigh- 

 bouring cells and be eaten by the larvae which have 

 been placed under ordinary conditions, even these are 

 raised a degree in the animal scale, and become semi- 

 fertile females.* 



In bees, white ants, and emmets, in fact among all 

 monarchical or republican insects which live in colonies, 

 the neuters are abortive females. Being from this 

 circumstance removed from the preoccupation and 

 duties which require the whole life of the perfect 

 insect, they strike out a new path for themselves. It 

 is these alone which, under the name of workers, do 

 all the labour, tunnel out the subterranean chambers, 

 or erect the habitations, and nurse the eggs and young 

 of the colony ; it is these which, at the risk of their 



* Hereafter we shall describe the reproduction of bees in detail. 

 (See the chapters on Parthenogenesis.) 



