
HYMENOPTERA. 329 
When the female returns to the hive, she is the object of every 
attention, the workers pressing round her, and forming quite a 
train. Many approach her, and lick the surface of her body; 
others brush her, caress her, and present her their trunks full of 
honey. Forty-eight hours after her return to the hive, the mother 
bee generally begins laying.* Running over the honeycomb, she 
deposits an egg in each empty cell, and fixes it to the bottom by 
means of a glutinous secretion, in such a way that the egg is 
suspended in the interior of the cell. They have the appearance 
of little oblong bodies, of a bluish white. If the queen, in a 
hurry to.lay, lets more than one egg fall into the same cell, the 
workers who accompany her hasten to carry out and destroy 
those that are in excess. This is often the case when the combs 
have not enough cells to contain all the eggs laid. We have 
said that the queen only lays worker eggs at this time; the others 
are laid later. She continues to lay until the cold weather 
approaches, when she ceases to do so, and does not reassume 
her occupation until the return of spring. This laying is very 
abundant. ‘The queen produces at least two hundred eges a-day ; 
so that in the space of two months she lays more than twelve 
thousand. Towards the eleventh month of her existence in the 
perfect state, the queen begins laying the eggs which will produce 
males, their number varying from fifteen hundred to three thou- 
sand : the deposition of these eggs occupies about a month. 
Towards the twentieth day, the workers lay the foundations of 
some royal cells. When these cells have attained a certain 
length, the queen deposits an egg in each, allowing, however, one 
or two days to intervene between the laying of these privileged 
eggs, so that the young queens to whom they are to give birth 
should not be hatched all at the same time, which would cause 
difficulties and even wars concerning the right of their succession 
to the throne. This complication, human governments have not 
been always able to avoid, as history shows; but the bees have 
found out a way of doing so. 
The distribution of the eggs in the cells is not left to chance. 
Each egg, according to the sex to which it belongs, is deposited 
in the cell which awaits it. The eggs of the females do’ not, 
* Not invariably, the period is often longer.— Kp. 























