496 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ments lie determined the fact that these insects recognize their queen, 

 and communicate the fact of her presence, by the crossing of their 

 antennae with those of other bees. The effect produced by the am- 

 putation of the antenna; has been already described, and shows of what 

 vital importance this organ is to them. 



Huber made many experiments upon the respiration of bees, prov- 

 ing them to absorb oxygen, and emit carbonic acid. A number of live 

 bees expired instantly in rnephitic air ; but others, when exposed to it 

 in a torpid condition, were unaffected, showing that it was respiration, 

 not contact, which caused their death. Two stigmata, the respiratory 

 organs of insects, were discovered by Huber in addition to the two 

 already known. Eggs and larvae, he showed, also absorb oxygen and 

 evolve carbonic acid. The air of the hives was repeatedly examined 

 by Huber, and found to be very nearly as pure as the outside air. 

 This fact directed his observations more closely to the economy of the 

 hive, and he discovered that the bees maintained a systematic ventila- 

 tion. Files arrange themselves in lines radiating from the door, and, 

 by keeping their wings in rhythmical motion, generate currents of air. 

 If the hive be sealed up, the bees at first fan violently, but in forty- 

 five minutes the whole swarm lies apparently dead from suffocation. 



It is necessary to pass over the curious provisions made by them 

 against their enemy the Sphinx atropos, and Huber's discovery of 

 the origin of propolis, to the last point which he has made luminous by 

 his observations, the origin of wax, and its- use in bee-architecture. 

 Reaumur discovered that pollen-dust, when submerged in water, 

 swells and finally bursts, and from the grains exudes an oily liquor, 

 which he took to be the substance converted, in the body of the bee, 

 into wax. This had been so long an accepted fact, that Huber did 

 not doubt its correctness till an observation of Burneus's induced him 

 to make a series of experiments upon the subject. He confined one 

 swarm of bees, giving them only honey, and another, supplying them 

 with nothing but pollen. Seven times new comb was found in the 

 first hive and removed, while none at all was made in the second. 

 Wax is secreted like fat in other animals, from saccharine matter, and 

 it accumulates, in layers of delicate white spicules, in the wax-pockets 

 of the bees. There are six depressions, lined with a reticulated mem- 

 brane, in the lower side of the worker's body, between the abdominal 

 rings. 



The reason for gathering pollen was, then, a matter of interest. It 

 was manufactured not for food, as bees lived perfectly well without it. 

 By close scrutiny Huber discovered that the workers swallow the 

 pollen, and after a time regurgitate it as food for the larvae. Marked 

 bees were seen to partake of the pollen, to ascend to the nurseries and 

 plunge their bodies head-foremost into the cells, containing worms. 

 After their withdrawal the cells were examined, and found to contain a 

 supply of the jelly which constitutes the food of the larvae. 



