Mr. Debraw has carried the subject further, by discovering the impregnation of the eggs by the males, and the difference of the size among the drones or males; though indeed this last circumstance was not unknown to Mess. Maraldi and Reaumur. Mr. Debraw watched the glass hives with indefatigable attention, from the moment the bees, among which he took care there should be a large number of drones, were put into them, to the time of the queen’s laying her eggs, which generally happens on the fourth or fifth day; he observed, that on the first or second day, always before the third from the time the eggs are placed in the cells, a great number of bees, fastening themselves to one another, hung down in the form of a curtain, from the top to the bottom of the hive; they had done the same at the time the queen deposited her eggs, an operation which seems contrived on purpose to conceal what is transacting; however, through some parts of this veil he was enabled to see some of the bees inserting the posterior part of their bodies each into a cell, and sinking into it, but continuing there only a little while. When they had retired, it was easy to discover a whitish liquor left in the angle of the basis of each cell, which contained an egg. In a day or two this liquor was absorbed into the embryo, which on the fourth day assumes its worm or larva state, to which the working bees bring a little honey for nourishment, during the first eight or ten days after its birth. When the bees find the worm has attained its full growth, they leave off bringing it food, they know it has no more need of it; they have still, however, another service to pay it, in which they never fail; it is that of shutting it up in its cell, where the larva is inclosed for eight or ten days: here a further change takes place; the larva, which was heretofore idle, now begins to work, and lines its cell with fine silk, while the working bee incloses it exteriorly with a wax covering. The concealed larva then voids its excrement, quits its skin, and assumes the pupa; at the end of some days the young bee acquires sufficient strength to quit the slender covering of the pupa, tears the wax covering of its cell, and proceeds a perfect insect.