Entomological Society. 59 



Dr. Bevan's communication was a reply to a note addressed to 

 him by Mr. Westwood, and is as follows : — 



" Machynlleth, August 25, 1845. 



" My dear Sir, — I was well pleased to find from your favour of 

 the 12th inst. that our opinions on the relative perfection of queen- 

 and worker-bees were in unison ; and also to learn, from your letter 

 to Mr. Golding, that we agree as to the probable effect of the pabu- 

 lum which is supplied, as well to the development of animal as of 

 vegetable life. The instance which you refer to of the effect pro- 

 duced on flowers by the soil in which they bloom, and of course by 

 the kind of nutriment which the plants derive therefrom, is very 

 much in point. So likewise is its effect on fruit. It is well-known 

 that in the cider counties the juice of the same fruit, treated in the 

 same manner, will produce very different sorts of cider, according to 

 the soil by which the trees are nourished. In Herefordshire to wit, 

 the clay side of the county affords a sweet pleasant liquor, the sandy 

 side a liquor that is rough and harsh, the fruit being the same. The 

 mere dimensions of the royal cell without other concomitants would, 

 I conceive, only cause the evolution of a large worker-bee, not a bee 

 undergoing such wonderful changes as a queen presents, and capable 

 of continuing its race. To accomplish this end, supported as we are 

 by various analogies, it is surely reasonable to believe that much, if 

 not the whole, depends upon diet. With yourself, I should much like 

 to obtain the analogies of other swarming insects, such as humble- 

 bees, wasps, ants, &c., in support or otherwise of this theory, but 

 must transfer the research to the eyes of younger investigators and 

 the resources of another Hiiber. 



" As I now, for the first time, learn what was stated in the British 

 Association * at Cambridge, and am unacquainted with the particu- 

 lars, which ought to be minutely ascertained before an opinion rest- 

 ing on such abundant evidence can be shaken, that matter must 

 stand over for the present. I should like to know what evidence 

 can be aflPbrded that the queen which accompanied the swarm was 

 a young one ; also, whether it be clearly ascertained to have been a 

 first swarm, and what queen, if any, was left behind. The hive 

 might have contained a superannuated queen, which died during the 

 maturation of her successor, though in that case I should conceive 

 that the family would not have been populous enough to send forth 

 a swarm. But she might have issued unknown to her proprietor, 

 and have lost her life from some accident prior to being hived, in 

 which case the swarm might return, and might in a short time after- 

 wards re-issue with a young queen. Upon one or other of these 

 suppositions only can I ever believe a prime swarm would be accom- 

 panied by a young queen. 



" The disproportionate number of males usually found in a family 

 of bees, in summer, has long been a stumbling-block with natural- 

 ists ; but it is a difficulty which Huber hoped he had been able to 



* It was stated by one of the members of the British Association, at the 

 meeting at Cambridge, tliat lie had observed a first swarm led off by a 

 newly-hatched queen. — J. O. W. 



