SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF FRANCIS HUBER. 49 1 



of the royal jelly, have their reproductive organs partially developed, 

 and lay drone-eggs. This fact was reached by an experiment which 

 required great courage and an almost incredible patience. Burneus, 

 of his own free will, caught, held, and carefully examined every bee 

 of two swarms in which fertile workers were suspected. This required 

 eleven clays of steady labor. " During all that time," says Huber, 

 " he scarcely allowed himself any relaxation except what the relief of 

 his eyes required." Each bee, after examination, was transferred to 

 a glass hive, which was watched ; finally, a bee was caught in the act 

 of laying, and was dissected : small ovaries were detected containing 

 a few eggs, but in all other respects it was a perfect worker. 



Huber also discovered the bitter animosity of the queens toward 

 each other. He observed the first-hatched queen, as she emerges 

 from her cell, traverse the comb till she finds a royal cell, which she 

 tears open, in apparent fury, and then stings the helpless pupae to 

 death. This she repeats again and again till she has destroyed every 

 possible rival. If, however, two queens emerge simultaneously, the 

 bees clear a space, and stand back and watch the conflict, which must 

 end fatally to one or the other. The two queens attack each other, 

 but, if, during the fight, they happen to find themselves in such a po- 

 sition that, by closing, each would kill the other, they withdraw, and 

 begin the combat afresh. As soon as either secures such an advantage 

 of position that she can sting without being stung, the fatal thrust is 

 given. 



Reaumur made the suggestion that it is the queens themselves 

 who rid themselves of their rivals ; but he had been strongly opposed 

 by the German naturalists, who contended that the worker-bees dis- 

 posed of the interlopers. What Reaumur advanced as a conjecture 

 Huber founded upon the impregnable basis of fact. 



If a strange queen be introduced into a swarm possessing one of 

 their own, the workers generally surround her, and quietly detain her 

 prisoner till she perishes of hunger, but do her no direct injury. The 

 only instance where workers were ever known to sting a queen was 

 once, during a general melee, and then it seemed pure accident. If, 

 however, the stranger queen, by accident, passes the sentinels at the 

 door, without being challenged, or is introduced by the experimenter 

 into the hive, for the purpose of observation upon the point, and 

 brought into close quarters with their own queen, they insist upon a 

 battle, and restrain the motions of either if they seem inclined to fly. 



After the loss of a queen, by a swarm, if a strange queen be intro- 

 duced, her reception will depend entirely upon the time which has 

 elapsed since their bereavement. At first, they refuse to be comforted, 

 and reject contumeliously any attempt to replace their loss. After 

 eighteen hours, they begin to consider the matter, and, in twenty-four, 

 receive, with royal honors, any queen offered to them. 



The yearly massacre of the drones, though a well-known fact, Hu- 



