QtJEEN. 3 



Her fecundity is amazing ; for in the 

 courfe of a year fhe ufually lays forty thou- 

 fand eggs, or more : me has been feen to 

 lay forty immediately one after another. 

 Her body at the height of the laying feafon 

 contains fome thoiifands of eggs. If empty 

 cells are not prepared, fhe is obliged to drop 

 them. She is five times longer in laying a 

 royal egg than a common one. 



The eggs are little white bodies, fixed by 

 their fmaller end to the bottom of the cell. 

 The royal cells are constructed on the edges 

 or fides of the combs, (pi. II. fig. 4. k.) 

 fometimes to the number of ten or twelve. 

 Thefe cells, when about half fmifhed, re- 

 femble the cup of an inverted acorn, c, and 

 are lengthened in proportion to the growth 

 of the maggot or nymph. They hang in 

 a perpendicular manner with the open end 

 downwards, c. After the egg is depolited 

 it remains in that ftate three days ; and then 

 being hatched, appears as a maggot in the 

 fhape of a half moon, lying at the bottom 

 of the cell, furrounded with a clammy white 

 fubftance, continually fupplied by the 

 Workers for its nutriment. In five -or fix 

 B 2 days 



