he hive, she returned, and approached it as if
to examine the place of her departure, perhaps judging this precaution
necessary to recognize it; she then flew away, describing horizontal
circles twelve or fifteen feet above the earth. We contracted the
entrance of the hive that she might not return unobserved, and placed
ourselves in the centre of the circles described in her flight, the more
easily to follow her and observe all her motions. But she did not remain
long in a situation favourable for us, and rapidly rose out of sight. We
resumed our place before the hive; and in seven minutes, the young queen
returned to the entrance of a habitation which she had left for the
first time. Having found no external appearance of fecundation, we
allowed her to enter. In a quarter of an hour she re-appeared; and,
after brushing herself as before, took flight. Then returning to examine
the hive, she rose so high that we soon lost sight of her. Her second
absence was much longer than the first; twenty-seven minutes elapsed
before she came back. We then found her in a state very different from
that in which she was after her first excursion. The sexual organs were
distended by a white substance, thick and hard, very much resembling the
fluid in the vessels of the male, completely similar to it indeed in
colour and consistence{E}.

But more evidence than mere resemblance was requisite to establish that
the female had returned with the prolific fluid of the males. We allowed
this queen to enter the hive, and confined her there. In two days, we
found her belly swoln; and she had already laid near an hundred eggs in
the worker's cells.

To confirm our discovery, we made several other experiments, and with
the same success. I shall continue to transcribe my journal.

On the second of July, the weather being very fine, numbers of males
left the hives. We set at liberty an unimpregnated young queen, eleven
days old, whose hive had always been deprived of males. Having quickly
left the hive, she returned to examine it, and then rose out of sight.
In a few minutes, she returned without any external marks of
impregnation. In a quarter of an hour, she departed again, but her
flight was so rapid that we could scarcely follow her a moment. This
absence continued thirty minutes. On returning, the last ring of the
body was open, and the sexual organs full of the whitish substance
already mentioned. She was then replaced in the hive from which