on the Sex of Bees . i § 
glalTes ; and confined within each a fufficient number of 
common bees, among which I left fome drones, but took, 
care that there fhould be no queen. 
The bees finding themfelves without a queen, made a, 
ftrange buzzing noife, which lafted near two days; at the. 
end of which they fettled and betook themfelves to work : 
on the fourth day I perceived in each hive the beginning . 
of a royal cell, a certain indication that one of the inclofed 
worms would foon be converted into a queen. The con- 
firuction of the royal cell being nearly accomplifhed, I 
ventured to leave an opening for the bees to get out, and 
found that they returned as regvdarly as they do in com- 
mon hives, and fhewed no inclination to defert their ha- 
bitation. But,, to be brief, at the end of twenty days, I ob- 
served four young queens among the new progeny. 
On relating the refult of thefe experiments to a, 
member of this univerfity, well converfant in the na- 
tural hiftory of bees, he deemed it neceflary, that they 
ihould be repeated, in order the better to eftablhh the 
truth of a fa£t feemingly fo improbable, that the eggs 
deftined by nature to produce neutral or common bees, 
fhould be transformed into females or queens. He flatted ; 
an objection to me, which by the publication of Mr. 
schirach appearing a little time after, feems to have 
been pointed out to that author alfo by Mr. withelmi, 
his • 
