242 BEES AND BEE-KEEPING. 



enveloping only the head, the thorax, and the first 

 ring of the abdomen. This discovery has given 

 me," continues Huber, " extreme pleasure, because it 

 evidently shows the admirable way in which Nature 

 has brought into agreement the different actions of 

 bees. Queens have a great mutual aversion, blood- 

 thirstily seeking one another's destruction. When 

 there are several royal nymphs in a hive, the first 

 one to hatch throws herself upon the others, and 

 pierces them with thrusts from her sting. But she 

 could not succeed if the nymphs were inclosed in 

 a complete cocoon, because the silk is strong, and 

 the cocoon of a close texture, which the sting would 

 not penetrate; or, if it penetrated, could not be 

 retracted, so that the queen would die the victim of 

 her own fury. In order that a queen may succeed 

 in killing her rivals in their cells, it is needful that 

 their hinder part be uncovered, for it is only here 

 that the dart will penetrate them, the head and the 

 thorax being clothed with strong, scaly plates. The 

 royal grubs should, therefore, furnish incomplete 

 cocoons." 



Is it true, then, Mons. Huber, that an unpoetical 

 little grub emulates Cassius, when, in a supreme 

 moment, he exclaims: "There is my dagger, and 

 here my naked breast"? Iteration and reiteration, 

 by author after author, since your admirable investi- 

 gations notwithstanding, it is utterly incorrect. We 

 should have had fewer writers, or more investigators 

 for the microscope, since the introduction of the 

 achromatic objective, between fifty and sixty years 

 ago, has been fully equal to showing that no cocoon, 



