Description of a hive invented by the author page 4 Swammerdam's opinion on the fecundation of bees 8 Sentiments of M. de Reaumur 10 Mr Debraw's opinion 11 Hattorf's opinion 19 Difficulty of discovering the mode of impregnation 22 Experiments on the subject 23 Suggestions by M. Bonnet 34 The queen is impregnated by copulation, which never takes place within the hive 41 Experiments on artificial fecundation have not succeeded 42 The male loses the sexual organs in copulation 43 Regarded impregnation affects the ovaries of the queen 45 She then lays no eggs but those producing males 47 One copulation impregnates all the eggs the queen will lay in two years 54 Fecundity of a queen 63 Common bees do not transport the queen's eggs 66 They sometimes eat them 69 Eggs producing males are sometimes laid in royal cells 71 Common worms may be converted into queens 77 Operations of the bees when this is done 78 Fertile workers sometimes exist 89 They lay none but the eggs of males 96 All common bees are originally females 98 Receiving the royal food while larvae, expands their ovaries 105 Mutual enmity of queens 110 The common bees seem to promote their combats 117 A guard is constantly at the entrance of the hive 123 What ensues when bees lose their queen 126 Effects of introducing a stranger queen 128 Massacre of the males 132 It never ensues in hives deprived of queens 135 A plurality of queens is never tolerated 142 The queen bee is oviparous 149 Bees seem occasionally to repose 150 Interval between production of the egg and the perfect state of bees 151 Mode of spinning the coccoon 153 That of the queen is open at one end 154 The size of the bees is not affected by that of the cells 167