INSECTS PRODUCING WAX, KESIN, HONEY, MANNA. 79 



gathering poisonous honey, and causing extensive 

 mortality among those who eat it. 



The duration of the life of bees has been a sub- 

 ject of controversy. Virgil and Pliny say seven 

 years, other writers ten ; but of the five hundred 

 bees which Reaumur marked with red paint in the 

 month of April, not one was living in November ; 

 and more modern authors state that the working 

 bees are annual insects, but that the queen may 

 live two years. We have already seen that the 

 males die every year. However, by a succession of 

 generations hives have been preserved for more 

 than five and twenty years ; and Thorley states that 

 a swarm of bees that took possession of a spot 

 under the leads of the study of Ludovicus Vives, in 

 Oxford, in 1520, were still there in 1630. They 

 had therefore propagated their race in this spot for 

 a period of one hundred and ten years. 



The enemies of bees are mice, rats, swallows, and 

 other insectivorous birds, wasps, ants, and some other 

 insects. They are also subject to certain diseases, 

 such as dysentery, indigestion, etc. Hives should 

 be placed in a quiet spot, away from noise ; if wasps' 

 nests exist in the neighbourhood, they should be 

 destroyed ; ants' nests likewise ; and frogs, toads, 

 ants, spiders, etc., must be kept away. Bears and 

 foxes are very fond of honey. When a person ap- 

 proaches a hive, he should speak mezza-voce, as the 



