PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS, 



113 



As I think you will allow that the evidence just detailed to 

 you is abundantly sufficient to establish the fact in question, 

 we will now see whether any satisfactory account can be 

 given for such changes being produced by such causes. " It 

 does not appear to me improbable," says Bonnet, " that a cer- 

 tain kind of nutriment, and in more than usual abundance, 

 may cause a development in the grubs of bees of organs 

 which would never be developed without it. I can readily 

 conceive, also, that a habitation considerably more spacious, 

 and differently placed, is absolutely necessary to the com- 

 plete development of organs which the new nutriment may 

 cause to grow in all directions." 1 And again, with respect 

 to the wings of the queen bee, which do not exceed those 

 of the workers in length, he thinks that this may arise from 

 their being of a substance too stiff to admit of their extension. 

 Those parts and points that were in a state to yield most 

 easily to the action which this kind of nutriment produced 

 would be most prominent ; and the vertical position of the 

 grub and pupa, since nature does nothing in vain, may pro- 

 bably assist this action, and render the parts of the animal 

 more capable of such extension than if it continued in a hori- 

 zontal position. 



We know, with respect to the human species and the larger 

 animals, that numerous differences, both as to the form and 

 relative proportion of parts, occur continually. The cause 

 of these differences we cannot always ascertain ; yet in many 

 instances they may either be derived from the nutriment 

 which the embryo receives in the womb, or from the greater 

 or less dimensions or higher or lower temperature of that 

 organ — a case that analogically would not be very wide of 

 that of the grub or embryo of a bee enclosed in a cell. Some 

 of the differences in man I now allude to may often be caused 



the 18th and 21st, they remained in the same state. On the 22d, two queens 

 were found hatched; one was removed, and the other left with the stock, the re- 

 maining royal cell being still closed. On the morning of the 23d, a dead queen 

 was thrown out of the hive; upon which examination being made, the royal cell 

 left closed on the 22d was found open, and a living queen in the stock, which was 

 allowed to remain. 

 1 Huber, ii. 445. 



VOL. II, 



1 



