340 PROCESS OF THE QUEEN LAYING HER EGGS. 



or, if Huber is to be credited, to a number of duels, which 

 might ultimately leave the hive without any monarch 

 at all. 



In the laying of her eggs, the queen is said by Huber to 

 be always attended by a body guard, who perforin the most 

 menial offices for her, and even, according to his ocular 

 observation, carry her majesty pickapack, whenever she is 

 likely to succumb under her extraordinary fatigue. They 

 further invigorate her at stated periods with a copious 

 supply of honey, and as the body of her majesty becomes 

 defiled by protruding it into the cells for the purpose of 

 laying her eggs, the guards hasten to lick and cleanse her 

 majesty of all her impurities, which appears to impart a high 

 degree of pleasure to the royal person. Leaving this fan- 

 faronade of Huber to the gratification of those, who have 

 a strong digestion for absurdities, we shall simply state, 

 that the queen bee lays her eggs, totally inattentive of every 

 thing that is passing around her, and wholly absorbed in the 

 important business in which she is engaged. Frequently, 

 she enters a cell with her head foremost, in which position 

 she remains for an instant, and then either passes to another 

 cell, or enters it backwards, when the deposition of the egg 

 takes place. The purpose of her entering the cell with her 

 head foremost is evidently with the view of ascertaining 

 whether an egg has been already deposited in it, and on 

 finding it to be the case, she hastens on to- another cell. 



At the expiration of three days, the egg is hatched, the 

 produce of which is a whitish worm, which is visible in a 

 circular form at the bottom of the cell, and in this state it is 

 known by the name of larva. According to the forwardness 

 or backwardness of the season, the worm or larva grows for 

 five or six days, when it envelops itself in a whitish silky 

 film, in which it takes the form of a chrysalis. In this state 

 the pellicle in which it is enveloped is so delicate and fine, 

 that its six legs can be distinctly seen arranged under its 



