f her hive no longer labour or make any collections, as if
aware that it was now useless to work. He cites no experiment that led
him to the discovery. Those made by myself have afforded some very
singular results.

I frequently amputated the four wings of queens; and not only did they
continue laying, but the same confederation of them was testified by the
workers as before. Therefore, Swammerdam has no foundation for
asserting, that mutilated queens cease to lay. Indeed, from his
ignorance of fecundation taking place without the hives, it is possible
he cut the wings off virgin queens, and they, becoming incapable of
flight, remained sterile from inability to seek the males in the air.
Thus, amputation of the wings does not produce sterility in queens.

* * * * *

I have frequently cut off one antennae to recognise a queen the more
easily, and it was not prejudicial to her either in fecundity or
instinct nor did it affect the attention paid to her by the bees. It is
true, that as one still remained, the mutilation was imperfect; and the
experiment decided nothing. But amputation of both antennae produced most
singular effects. On the fifth of September, I cut both off a queen that
laid the eggs of males only, and put her into the hive immediately after
the operation. From this moment there was a great alteration in her
conduct. She traversed the combs with extraordinary vivacity. Scarcely
had the workers time to separate and recede before her; she dropped her
eggs, without attending to deposit them in any cell. The hive not being
very populous, part was without comb. Hither she seemed particularly
earnest to repair, and long remained motionless. She appeared to avoid
the bees; however, several workers followed her into this solitude, and
treated her with the most evident respect. She seldom required honey
from them, but, when that occurred, directed her trunk with an uncertain
kind of feeling, sometimes on the head and sometimes on the limbs of the
workers, and if it did reach their mouths, it was by chance. At other
times she returned upon the combs, then quitted them to traverse the
glass sides of the hive: and always dropped eggs during her various
motions. Sometimes she appeared tormented with the desire of leaving her
habitation. She rushed towards the opening, and entered the glass tube
adapted there; but the external orific being too small, after fruitless
exertion, she returned