88 
ABTi: ICIAL QUEENS. 
and the workers, piercing a hole in the cover of the 
cel], insert their probosces, and supply her with food 
during her captivity. 
On the conversion of the larva of a Worker into a 
Queen. — Bees, when deprived of their Queen, are 
endowed by nature with the power of remedying this 
calamity, by converting a worker larva into a royal 
one ; and, by means of a cell of a larger size, and of a 
peculiar kind of nourishment, of producing a female 
that shall he, to all intents and purposes, a Queen or 
mother-bee, capable of perpetuating her kind. The 
discovery of this singular fact is generally attributed 
to Schirach, and, probably, with justice ; for, although 
the practice of making artificial swarms, which can 
only be effected by causing the production of artificial 
Queens, is said to have prevailed amongst the modern 
Greeks and Italiaus from a very early period, it does 
not follow, nor does it appear from any authentic 
documents, that they were aware of the reason why. 
The manner in which Schirach made the discovery is 
interesting : — Having used a great quantity of smoke 
in some of his operations, the bees were so annoyed 
by it that numbers of them left the hive, and, amongst 
them, tire Queen. Knowing the consequences of her 
loss, he sought for her diligently, but in vain. Next 
morning he observed a cluster of bees about tbe size 
of an apple on the prop of the hive whose Queen bad 
fled ; here he discovered a Queen, and, having carried 
her to the entrance of the hive which had lost its own, 
she was immediately surrounded by the bees, and 
treated in such a manner as plainly announced that 
