on the Sex of Bees. 2 r 
de les dijlinguer dans cette ruche de abeilles ordinaires,fans 
le grand nombre que nousy en avons trouve. II fepourroit 
bien faire que dans les ruches ou Von riapas trouve de gros 
bourdons, il y en eut de ces petit s, et qu’ils y aient ete con * 
fondus avec le rejle des abeilles , lorfque nous ne favions 
pas encore qu’ily en eut de cette taille. “We have of 
“ late found a great quantity of drones much fmaller 
“ than thofe we had formerly obferved, and which do not 
“ exceed in lize the common bees ; fo that it would not 
“ have been eafy to diftinguifh them in that hive from 
“ the common bees, had not the quantity of them been 
“ very confiderable. It might certainly have happened 
“ that in thofe hives, where we have not been able to. 
“ difcover large drones, there were a great number of 
“ thofe little ones, which may have been intermixed 
“ among common bees when we were yet ignorant that 
“ any fuch fmall drones were exifting.” 
reaumur himfelf, p. 591. of his Natural Hiftory of 
Infects, fays, “We have likewife found drones that were 
“ no bigger than the common bees.” 
They have notwithftanding efcaped the obfervation, 
of Mr. schirach, and of his friendMr. hattorf mem- 
ber of an Academy in Lufatia, who, in a memoir he 
prefented in the year 1769, annihilates entirely the 
ufe of drones in a hive; and advances this lingular 
opinion,. 
