‘284 POPULAR SCRIPTURE ZOOLOGY.

number) are destined for the future queens, and are of a
different form to the rest. The antennse seem to be the
organs by which the little architects regulate the shape of
their wonderful buildings. The first cells are all made of
the proper size and shape for the working-bees, but when
the queen is about to lay eggs which will produce drones,
the builders immediately change the dimensions of the cell
to suit the intended occupant; they also, at certain inter-
vals, construct royal cells, and about once in three days the
queen deposits an egg which is destined to produce a qneen.
Should the queen happen to die before having laid any of
these royal egys, the bees select one of those which would
have produced a working-bee; three cells are thrown into
one for ita reception; the grub, when hatched, is fed with
peculiar food, and a queen is produced, whereas, had it re-
mained in the original cell, and been fed with ordinary food,
it would have turned out only a working-bee. When the
first young queen is ready to leave her cell, the queen-
mother quits the hive, with a portion of the workers, to
form a new settlement, and successive swarms follow the
young queens as they come to maturity, thus relieving the
 over-burdened hive, and forming fresh communities.

The generic distinctions of the genus Apis consist prin-