132 



PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



ments, the observations being made in different climates, and 

 perhaps under different circumstances, may be true. The 

 laying of worker eggs begins in February, sometimes so early 

 as January. 1 After this, in the spring, the great laying of 

 male eggs commences, lasting thirty days; in which time 

 about 2000 of these eggs are laid. Another laying of them, 

 but less considerable, takes place in autumn. In the season 

 of oviposition, the queen may be discerned traversing the 

 combs in all directions with a slow step, and seeking for 

 cells proper to receive her eggs. As she walks she keeps her 

 head inclined, and seems to examine, one by one, all the cells 

 she meets with. When she finds one to her purpose, she 

 immediately gives to her abdomen the curve necessary to 

 enable it to reach the orifice of the cell, and to introduce it 

 within it. The eggs are set in the angle of the pyramidal 

 bottom of the cell, or in one of the hollows formed by the 

 conflux of the sides of the rhombs, and being besmeared with 

 a kind of gluten, stand upright. If, however, it be a female 

 that lays only male eggs, they are deposited upon the lowest 

 of the sides of the cell, as she is unable to reach the bottom. 2 

 While our prolific lady is engaged in this employment, her 

 court consists of from four to twelve attendants, which are 

 disposed nearly in a circle, with their heads turned towards 

 her. After laying from two to six eggs, she remains still, 

 reposing for eight or nine minutes. During this interval the 

 bees in her train redouble their attentions, licking her fondly 

 with their tongues. Generally speaking, she lays only one 

 egg in a cell ; but when she is pressed, and there are not 

 cells enough, from two to four have been found in one. In 

 this case, as if they were aware of the consequences, the pro- 

 vident workers remove all but one. From an experiment of 

 Huber's, it appears that the instinct of the queen invariably 

 directs her to deposit worker eggs in worker cells ; for when 

 he confined one, during her course of laying worker eggs, 

 where she could only come at male cells, she refused to ovi- 

 posit in them ; and trying in vain to make her escape, they 

 at length dropped from her; upon which the workers 



i Schirach, 13. Thorley, 105. 



2 Bonnet, x. 258. 8vo. ed. 



