ANNALS OP THE 
cell would be exposed to the special heat. The heat is kept up by the respiration 
of the bees, and they have a wonderful power of raising the temperature when re- 
quired. They can thus localize the heat, and apply a special temperature. To put 
this to the test, I applied a delicate thermometer to the queen's cell, while others 
for comparison were placed in different parts of the hive. This at once revealed 
the fact, that an elevated temperature was constantly employed in hatching the 
queen. While the experiment is not decisive as to temperature being the sole 
cause, it at least indicates it as one of the efficient causes, if there be more than one. 
This furnishes one of the most striking illustrations of calculation and adaptation in 
the whole range of natural science.* 
It is plain that queens may be produced, at pleasure, simply by removing the 
reigning monarch. In a few hours her loss is detected, and three or four queen- 
cells are seen to be in the process of construction. By repeating the experiment, 
I found that not only were queens produced from neuter worms, but that a few 
drones were also developed. The drones, hatched and developed in the small cells 
of neuters, were much smaller than ordinary drones, being only about half the size 
of the latter. This was a far more startling fact than the production of queens from 
neuters. In the latter case the sex is the same, and the question is one merely of 
degree of development. In the case of the development of the drone from the neu- 
ter, there is a transformation of sex. On repeating the experiment, the results were 
invariable. When a hive was supplied only with neuter larvae, both males and fe- 
males, or drones and queens, were developed. 
The next experiment was to determine whether a queen might be developed 
from a drone larvse. To test this, the reigning queen was removed, and also all 
the neuter brood, so that nothing was left but drone brood. To my great satisfac- 
tion I saw the commencement of a queen's cell, and the process went on as far as the 
chrysalis state; but I was not fortunate enough to bring out a perfect queen. In 
such experiments there is great danger of failing, unless the hive be very strong ; 
and, generally, every such experiment implies the loss of the hive, so that only 
small hives of little value are usually employed. But when the numbers are not 
kept up by a fertile queen, the population rapidly dwindles, and the hatching power 
is lost The larva, when the hatching process ceased, was not old enough to have 
its sex distinguished ; but the great probability is that the instinct of the bees could 
not have so far failed them as to lead them to go on with the development of a 
*It appears from the report of the Entomological Society of England, held 4th Nov., 18CI, that the observa- 
tions of Mr. Tegetmeier, have confirmed the above conclusions. "Mr. Tegetmeier called attention to a statement 
regarding the development of queen bees lately published by Professor Leitch, who asserts that the production of 
the perfect queen is due, not as has been supposed, to the larva being fed on a peculiar food, but to increased tem- 
pei'ature, and that the isolated position of the royal cell enables the worker bees to cluster around, and by their 
rapid and increased respiration to produce the degree of heat necessary. Mr. Tegetmeier considered his own ob- 
servations fully supported this theory." 
