260 Microscopical Essays. 



conftru6tion of a royal cell, and then taking the proper methods 

 for feeding and hatching the brood inclofed with them ; fome- 

 times even on the fecond day the foundation of one or more 

 royal cells were to be perceived • the view of which furnifhed 

 certain indications that they had elected one of the inclofed 

 worms to the fovereignty. The bees may now be left at liberty. 



The final refult of thefe experiments is, that the colony of 

 working bees being thus fhut up with a morfel of brood comb, 

 not only hatch, but at the end of eighteen or twenty days pro- 

 duce from thence one or two queens, which have to all appear- 

 ance proceeded from worms of the common fort, which appears 

 to have been converted by them into a queen, merely becaufe 

 they wanted one. * 



From experiments of the fame kind, varied and often repeated, 

 Mr. Shirach concludes that all the common working bees were 

 originally of the female fex ; but that if they are not fed, lodged, 

 and brought up in a particular manner while they are in a 

 larva ftate, their organs are not developed ; and that it is to this 

 circumftance attending the bringing up of the queen, that the 

 extenfion of the female organs is effected, and the difference in 

 her form and fize produced. 



Mr. Deb raw has carried the fubjecT: further, by difcovering 

 the impregnation of the eggs by the males, and the difference of 

 the fize among the drones or males ; though indeed this lafi cir- 

 cum fiance was not unknown to Me IT. Maraldi and Reaumur. 

 Mr. Debraw watched the glafs hives with indefatigable attention, 



from 



* Shirach Hiftoire Natwelle des Abeilles. 



