The queen (Fig. 14), although referred to as the mother bee, was called the king by Virgil, Pliny, and by writers as late as the last century, though in the ancient "Bee Master's Farewell," by John Hall, published in London in 1796, I find an admirable description of the queen bee, with her function correctly stated. Réaumur as quoted by "Wildman on Bees," published in London in 1770, says "this third sort has a grave and sedate walk, is armed with a sting, and is mother of all the others." Huber, to whom every apiarist owes so much, and who, though blind, through the aid of his devoted wife and intelligent servant, Frances Burnens, developed so many interesting facts, demonstrated the fact of the queen's maternity. This author's work, second edition, published in Edinburgh, in 1808, gives a full history of his wonderful observations and experiments, and must ever rank with Langstroth as a classic, worthy of study by all. [Illustration: Fig. 14. _Queen Bee, magnified._] The queen, then, is the mother bee, in other words, a fully developed female. Her ovaries (Fig. 11, _a, a_) are very large, nearly filling her long abdomen. The tubes already described as composing them are very numerous, while the spermatheca (Fig. 11, _e_) is plainly visible. This is muscular, receives abundant nerves, and thus, without doubt, may or may not be compressed to force the sperm cells in contact with the eggs as they pass by the duet. Leuckart estimates that the spermatheca will hold more than 25,000,000 spermatozoa. The possession of the ovaries and attendant organs, is the chief structural peculiarity which marks the queen, as these are the characteristic marks of females among all animals. But she has other peculiarities worthy of mention She is longer than either drones or workers, being more than seven-eighths of an inch in length, and, with her long tapering abdomen, is not without real grace and beauty. The queen's mouth organs, too, are developed to a less degree than are those of the worker-bees. Her jaws (Fig. 21, _b_) or mandibles are weaker, with a rudimentary tooth, and her tongue or ligula (Fig. 15, _a_), as also the labial palpi (Fig. 15, _b_) and maxillæ are considerably shorter. Her eyes, like the same in the worker-bee (Fig. 5), are smaller than those of the drones, and do not meet above. So the three ocelli are situated above and between. The queen's wings, too, (Fig. 14) are relatively shorter than those either of the workers or drones, for instead of attaining to the end of the body, they reach but little beyond the third joint of the abdomen. The queen, though she has the characteristic posterior tibia and basal tarsus (Fig. 16, _p_), in respect to breadth, has not the cavity and surrounding hairs, which form the pollen baskets of the workers. [Illustration: Fig. 15. _Labium of Queen._ _a_--Ligula. _b_--Labial palpi. _d, d_--Paraglossæ. ]