
Ba 
a 
ay 
4 ia 
pai 
" 
aedindlt 
| Ne 
\ pape 
wai 
| marty 
ems 

, mee 

332 THE INSECT WORLD. 
This is the way in which the hatching of ordinary bees takes 
place, workers and males; the first, twenty days after they are 
laid; the second, twenty-four days after. The rearing and birth 
of the young queens is slightly different. In proportion as the 
larvee increase in size, do the workers enlarge the cells which 
contain them; and then again gradually diminish their size as 
the moment of their last metamorphosis approaches. A special 
and peculiar food is given to the larvee of the queens; it is quite 
different from that which is given to the larve of the working 
bees, being a. heavier and sweeter substance. This special food 
seems to exercise such an energetic influence on the development 
of the ovaries, that simple workers which have accidentally re- 
ceived any of it, during their larval state, become pregnant and 
lay a few eggs. But this anomalous development remains imper- 
fect, because the prolific food was only administered in a small 
quantity. Besides which, the size of the cells is of great impor- 
tance to the development of the larve imprisoned in them ; and 
so the larvee of working bees having lived in the small cells, can 
never attain the proportions of the queen, nor acquire her fecundity. 
But all this is changed if these larvee are moved into the large 
cells and fed on this royal pabulum; they then become veritable 
queens. If, with us, the coat does not make the man nor the 
frock the monk, it is.certain that with bees the cradle helps mate- 
rially to make the queen. 
When the queen through some accident or other has ReaeeD 
the plebeian population of the hive very quickly perceive the mis- 
fortune, and without losing time in useless regrets, apply them- 
selves to repair their loss. They choose the larva of a working 
bee, less than three days old, on which they bestow the treatment 
suited to change it into a female. The workers enlarge the cell 
of this grub by demolishing the surrounding cells, and administer 
to it a strong dose of royal food to effect its transformation. This 
marvellous metamorphosis is accomplished like those which one ~ 
reads of in fairy tales, where so many poor beggars are changed, 
by a wave of the hand, into beautiful princesses, covered with gold 
and precious stones. Only here the fairy tale is a true story ; the 
poet’s dream a real phenomenon. According to Francis Huber, 
the larva intended to produce a female has to change its posi- 


