GLAND STRUCTURES. S3 



evidence in favour, of which has accumulated until I 

 cannot but regard it as established. It is, that the 

 queen, if not always, at least during the time of egg- 

 laying, is fed by the workers from the secretion of 

 gland No. 1, with possible additions from some of 

 the others. 



It has been already stated (page 26), that the 

 queen, at certain periods, has the power of producing 

 between 2,000 and 3,000 eggs daily. Each one of 

 these is -f^in. long, -jqjin. in diameter ; and a careful 

 calculation shows that 90,000 would occupy a cubic 

 inch, and weigh 270 grains. So that a good queen, 

 for days, or even weeks, in succession, would deposit, 

 every twenty-four hours, between six and nine grains 

 of highly developed and extremely rich tissue-forming 

 matter. Taking the lowest estimate, she then yields 

 the incredible quantity of twice* her own weight 

 daily, or, more accurately, four times, since at this 

 period more than half her weight consists of eggs. Is 

 not the reader ready to exclaim, What enormous 

 powers of digestion she must possess, and, since pollen 

 is the only tissue-forming food of bees, what pellets 

 of this she must constantly keep swallowing, and 

 how large must be the amount of her dejections ! 

 But what are the facts ? Dissection reveals that 

 her chyle stomach is smaller than that of the 

 worker, and that, at the time of her highest efforts, 

 often scarcely a pollen grain is discoverable within it, 

 its contents consisting of a transparent mass, micro- 



* Queens vary considerably in weight, small ones, in the winter, not 

 exceeding i£ grains, while a few, in the middle of the spring-laying, will 

 turn the scale at 3 grains — feeding adding fully half a grain more. 



H 2 



