ECONOMY OF HIVE BEE. 25 



she in no sense governs — longer in body than the 

 worker (Fig. 5, a), and really differently formed in 

 every part, and possessing most active and curious 

 egg organs, called ovaries, which are capable of 

 yielding a prodigious quantity of eggs. As we watch 

 this queen slowly progressing, with a number of 

 workers about her, touching her continually with 

 their antennae, and backing out of the way so as not 

 to impede her movements, she dips her head very 

 deeply into a cell, and, having satisfied herself that 

 it is empty, she advances a step, holds on to the 

 edges of the comb, principally by her second and 



b c 



Fig. 5.— Hive Bee (Apis mellifica), Natural Size. 

 a, Worker ; b, Queen ; c, Drone. 



third pairs of legs, and, curling her abdomen, inserts 

 it into the examined cell, until it is almost entirely 

 hidden. A moment of apparent stillness; she recom- 

 mences her walk, her abdomen straightens as it rises 

 from its hiding place, and we immediately see that 

 she has left behind a tiny long and narrow pearly- 

 white egg, fixed by one end to the cell bottom. The 

 queen quickly repeats the operation, the neigh- 

 bouring nurses being always ready to offer food. 

 Their attentions are, as we can easily see, needful, 

 but many writers have given the echo to a medieval 

 fancy by stating that she is ever surrounded by a 



D 



