x ii CONTENTS. 



PAGE 



several species of bees, not founded on truth— Difference 

 in the size of the bee accounted for— Singular hypothesis 

 of Huber in regard to the nurse bees— Examination of 

 the disputed points— Study of the natural history of the 

 bee by the ancients— By Swammerdam, Miraldi, Reau- 

 mur, Bonner, and Schirach— Interest attached to the 

 study of the bee 



CHAPTER II. 



THE QUEEN BEE. 



The queen bee the mother of all the inmates of the hive — 

 Organic structure of the queen bee — Position of the eggs 

 in her ovarium — Investigation of the French and English 

 apiarians — The fecundation of the queen according to the 

 system of Huber — Difficulties attending that system — The 

 queen begins to lay her eggs in January — Bostel an ad- 

 vocate for the self-fecundation of the queen — The drone 

 determined to be the male bee — The ovarium of the 

 queen, according to Huber, fecundated for the whole of 

 her life by a single act of coition with the drone — Nu- 

 merical fecundity of the queen bee (note) — Number of 

 oviducts in the ovarium of the queen — Number of eggs in 

 the ovarium — The earliest appearance of eggs in the ova- 

 rium — Some drones survive the winter, according to Bon- 

 ner — Denied by Sir John Sinclair — The sexual intercourse 

 of the queen and the drone advocated by the French 

 apiarians — Remarks of the Monthly reviewers (note) — 

 Number of eggs laid by the queen in an hour — Liittichau 

 an eye-witness of the act of coition— Detection of the 

 drone in the fecundation of the egg— Microscopical ex- 

 amination of the seminal matter — The fecundation of the 

 egg in the cell confirmed by Debraw — Theory of Swam- 

 merdam — The hypothesis of L'Abbe' della Rocca relative 

 to the copulation of the queen and the drone (note) — The 

 queen bee never leaves the hive — The contrary asserted 

 by Huber — The period of her absence from the hive- 

 Effect of her absence on the bees — The drone, according 

 to Huber, dies after copulation — Singular discovery of 

 Huber in regard to the drone — Experiment of Huber with 

 some young queens— The young queens depart with the 

 swarms— Confirmed by Swammerdam— Contradiction of 

 Huber relative to the old and young queens— The young 

 queen commences to lay her eggs immediately on being 



settled in the hive— Experiment to determine the same 



Experiment of Huber with the queen and drone Incon- 

 sistency of the experiment — Queen bees, according to 

 Huber, bred in October — Experiment thereon — Its fal- 



