the honey-bee. 
69 
therefore, that, if the larva of a common Bee were 
fed with the royal jelly, the imperfection in her bodily 
organs would, as far at least as depended on the 
nature of the food, be removed, and she would be- 
come capable of laying eggs. Now this does occa- 
sionally take place; some of the royal food is dropped, 
probably by accident, into some of the cells adjoining 
that of the Queen, and the Bees therein reared 
acquire the power of laying eggs. This fact was 
discovered by the naturalist Riem, and has been con- 
firmed by Huber. There is, however, a very ma- 
terial and hitherto unaccounted for difference between 
these fertile workers and perfect Queens, — the former 
lay the eggs of males only. W e would certainly have 
expected, a priori, that a difference between them 
should exist; because the workers have fed on the 
royal jelly only for a short time, and because their 
birth-place is so much smaller. But we cannot easily 
conceive how these circumstances should be the cause 
of their laying only male-eggs. In truth, it appears 
to be one of those mysteries in bee -economy 
which, with all our researches on the subject, we 
cannot yet unravel. These fertile workers are never 
found in any hives but such as have lost their natural 
Queen. 
The natural term of the worker’s existence does 
not extend, we think, beyond six or eight months. 
It is the opinion of Dr. Bevan that all the Bees brought 
into existence at the Queen’s great laying in spring, 
die before winter. But many never reach that period 
Showers of rain, violent blasts of wind, sudden changes 
