ECONOMY OF HIVE BEE. 27 



produced, a cell of large size and extraordinary form 

 is constructed (A and B, Fig. 3), and, by special 

 feeding of its occupant, instead of a worker, a queen 

 is evolved. She, being a female, needs a mate, and 

 such is found in the drone (c, Fig. 5), or male, which 

 has a very complicated structure, that must be duly 

 considered under its proper head. The drones are pro- 

 duced in larger cells than the workers, so that their 

 more rotund forms may be accommodated. Their cells 

 are a quarter of an inch in diameter, and are seen 

 over D, E, F, Fig. 3, and may always be recognised 

 when they contain sealed brood (the name for inclosed 

 larvae) by the very convex forms of their cappings. The 

 eggs to provide these males are also laid by the queen, 

 and are, whilst in her ovaries, absolutely like those 

 that furnish both queens and workers. When, however, 

 the latter are to be evolved, by a somewhat compli- 

 cated act occurring in the body of the queen just 

 before the egg is deposited, fertilisation takes place 

 by the addition of material originally received from 

 the drone. When drones are to be produced, this 

 addition is withheld and the eggs are laid unim- 

 pregnated — i.e., drones have a mother, but no father, 

 a question, the examination of which, with the 

 anatomy of the parts involved, will be fully explained 

 and illustrated as we proceed with our task. 



The tremendous fecundity of the queen, in favour- 

 able conditions, so multiplies the number of bees, that 

 a division of the community becomes necessary, 

 beside which, these wondrous little animals have an 

 essential and deeply-rooted colonising instinct, upon 

 obedience to which they often insist with singular 



