Thus what happens is this: the leaders generate their own kind but
also another kind, that of the bees; the bees again generate another
kind, the drones, but do not also generate their own kind, but this
has been denied them. And since what is according to Nature is
always in due order, therefore it is necessary that it should be
denied to the drones even to generate another kind than themselves.
This is just what we find happening, for though the drones are
themselves generated, they generate nothing else, but the process
reaches its limit in the third stage. And so beautifully is this
arranged by Nature that the three kinds always continue in existence
and none of them fails, though they do not all generate.
Another fact is also natural, that in fine seasons much honey is
collected and many drones are produced but in rainy reasons a large
brood of ordinary bees. For the wet causes more residual matter to
be formed in the bodies of the leaders, the fine weather in that of
the bees, for being smaller in size they need the fine weather more
than the kings do. It is right also that the kings, being as it were
made with a view to producing young, should remain within, freed
from the labour of procuring necessaries, and also that they should be
of a considerable size, their bodies being, as it were, constituted
with a view to bearing young, and that the drones should be idle as
having no weapon to fight for the food and because of the slowness
of their bodies.
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