Account of the Queen Bee. 61 
‘and in the midft of the faid matter in the cell ; 
‘and on the feventh day it is fealed up. 
During this period, our young princefs un- 
dergoes various metamorphofes. I have open- 
ed the royal cell on the tenth day, and have 
found the maggot {till on the top of the white 
liquor ; and having taken it into my hand to 
_ fhow it to any friend, it would have moved for 
a {hort time, although at this period, it had not 
the {malleft refemblance to a bee, being ftill on- 
ly amaggot. But on the fourteenth or fifteenth 
day, the metamorphofis is fo complete, that in- 
flead of a grofs white worm, forth comes a 
charming young Queen bee, + arrayed in all 
her glory. From the whole of thefe experi- 
ments, therefore, which I have repeated on va- 
rious occafions, I can pofitively affirm, that the 
Queen bee is capable of becoming a mother, 
without fo much as feeing a drone; and that 
the 
+ The fame procefs, or nearly fo, is ufed by the common bees, 
to bring forward both their own fpecies and drones, by throw- 
ing the whitifh matter on the eggs, and fealing them up, till the 
maggots undergo the ufual changes in the cells, &c. And each 
egg generally produces a bee in about fourteen or fixteen days. 
‘Lhave feen them differ two or three days in point of time. Per- 
haps an egg, fhould the bees let it alone and inject no matter up- 
on it, might, neverthelefs, keep warm for 8 days, and produce a 
bee at laft. 
