the Honey-bee. 
85 ' 
that the Queen lays male eggs, and that, as the natu- 
ral consequence, royal cells are built, in which she 
lays, and, in due time, she leads off a swarm. Now, 
does not this fact seem to imply that there is no such 
arbitrary arrangement of the several hinds of eggs as 
Huber imagines? and if it would be stretching the 
inference too far to say, that the Queen has the power 
of laying those of males or of workers as circumstances 
may require, — does it not imply that the statement of 
Huber may admit of very important and frequent 
exceptions ? 
About the twentieth day from the commencement 
of the laying of male eggs, the bees begin to lay the 
foundations of royal cells, and the Queen having re- 
sumed laying female eggs, deposits them, at intervals 
of one or two days, in these cells, from which are 
hatched, in due time, other Queens. * This regular 
process is, however, sometimes interrupted : — if the 
Queen be not a fertile one, and the colony is, in con- 
sequence, weak in population ; if the hive or domicile 
itself be large in proportion to the number of its in- 
habitants ; or if the temperature of the season has been 
such as to interfere with the copious collection of 
honey or farina, in these circumstances no male eggs 
will be laid, no royal cells founded, and no swarms 
will issue. But, in favourable circumstances, the 
laying of royal eggs takes place regularly during the 
laying of those of males, and swarming is the conse- 
quence. Theroyalcell(Pl. VI.)isan inch in depth, and 
it has been considered difficult to comprehend how the 
body of the Queen can reach the bottom, so as to 
