issect them for the purpose of finding their ovaries. When M. Reims
informed me that he had confined three hundred workers, along with a
comb containing no eggs, and afterwards found hundreds in it, I strongly
recommended that he should dissect the workers. He did so; and informed
me that eggs were found in three. Probably without being aware of it, he
has dissected small queens. As small drones exist, it is not surprising
if small queens are produced also, and undoubtedly by the same external
causes.

It is of much consequence to be intimately acquainted with this species
of queens, for they may have great influence on different experiments
and embarrass the observer: we should ascertain whether they inhabit
pyramidal cells smaller than the common, or hexagonal ones.

M. Schirach's famous experiment on the supposed conversion of a common
worm into a royal one, cannot be too often repeated, though the Lusatian
observers have already done it frequently. I could wish to learn
whether, as the discoverer maintains, the experiment will succeed only
with worms, three or four days old, and never with simple eggs.

The Lusatian observers, and those of the Palatinate, affirm, that when
common bees are confined with combs absolutely void of eggs, they then
lay none but the eggs of drones. Thus, there must be small queens
producing the eggs of males only, for it is evident they must have
produced those supposed to come from workers. But how is it possible to
conceive that their ovaries contain male eggs alone?

According to M. de Reaumur, the life of chrysalids may be prolonged by
keeping them in a cold situation, such as an ice-house. The same
experiment should be made on the eggs of a queen; on the nymphs of
drones and workers.

Another interesting experiment would be to take away all the combs
composing the common cells, and leave none but those destined for the
larvae of males. By this means we should learn whether the eggs of common
worms, laid by the queen in the large cells, will produce large workers.
It is very probable, however, that deprivation of the common cells might
discourage the bees, because they require them for their honey and wax.
Nevertheless, it is likely, by taking away only part of the common
cells, the workers may be forced to lay common eggs in the cells of
drones.

I should also wish to have the young larvae gently removed from the royal
cell, and deposited at the bottom of a common one, along wit