y greedily sucked all the fluid from the abdomen, and then
carried them away. The following days no drones remained in the hives.

These two observations seem to me decisive. It is incontestible that
nature has charged the workers with the destruction of the males at
certain seasons of the year. But what means does she use to excite their
fury against them? This is a question that I cannot pretend to answer.
However, an observation I have made may one day lead to solution of the
problem. The males are never destroyed in hives deprived of queens, on
the contrary, while a savage massacre prevails in other places, they
there find an asylum. They are tolerated and fed, and many are seen even
in the middle of January. They are also preserved in hives, which,
without a queen properly so called, have some individuals of that
species that lay the eggs of males, and in those whose half fecundated
queens, if I may use the expression, propagate only drones. Therefore,
the massacre takes place but in hives where the queens are completely
fertile, and it never begins until the season of swarming is past.

_PREGNY, 28 August 1791._

LETTER VII.

_SEQUEL OF EXPERIMENTS ON THE RECEPTION OF A STRANGER QUEEN. M. DE
REAUMUR'S OBSERVATIONS ON THE SUBJECT._

I have frequently testified my admiration of M. de Reaumur's
observations on bees. I feel a sensible pleasure in acknowledging that
if I have made any progress in the art of observation, I am indebted for
it to profound study of the works of this naturalist. In general his
authority has such weight, that I can scarcely trust my own experiments
when the results are different from his. Likewise, on finding myself in
opposition to the _historian of bees_, I repeat my experiments. I vary
the mode of conducting them; I examine with the utmost caution all the
circumstances that might mislead me, and never are my labours
interrupted before acquiring the moral certainty of avoiding error. With
the aid of these precautions, I have discovered the justice of M. de
Reaumur's suggestions, and I have a thousand times seen, if certain
experiments seemed to combat them, it was from incorrectness of
execution. Yet I must except some facts where my results have constantly
been different from his. Those respecting the reception of a stranger
queen substituted for the natural one, are of the number.

If, after removing the natural queen, a stranger is immediately
substituted, the usurper is