PICTORIAL AND POETICAL. 407 



Bees, whether solitary or social, deserve particular attention 

 among the Hymenopterae. They all pass through the usual 

 transitions from the larva to the perfect insect. Hence, in fact, 

 it is the object of every insect arrived at maturity, to pro- 

 vide apartments and food for the future family instinct bids them 

 to expect, and discarding all tales, we must view them as strictly 

 devoting all their energies to this purpose. Thus the " carpenter 

 bees" form a number of cells in old posts and decayed timber, 

 in each of which they lodge an egg, in a mass of honey and 

 pollen — a store for the future larva.* The " mason-bees" con- 

 struct their cells upon walls ; and the leaf-cutting bees burrow 

 caverns in the ground, which they line with rose-leaves, sin- 

 gularly cut out for the purpose, and some species adorn their 

 cells with a scarlet tapestry from the poppy. All these bees 

 consist of two kinds of individuals only. 



Among the social tribes, however, a third kind, and the most 

 numerous appear, about whom many disputes have arisen. 

 They are commonly called " workers," but it appears that they 

 are really females, though never destined to produce ova. As 

 the queen bee lays an immense number of eggs, it appears that 

 one mother is amply sufficient for the purposes of the hive, and 

 she herself is so sensible of this, that the appearance of any 

 other is the signal for a murderous attack on her part ; and even 

 when a young queen arrives at maturity for the purpose of 

 leading forth a swarm, the workers keep her concealed from the 

 old governess. If, however, the queen dies, the workers are 

 enabled by giving additional food to and enlarging the cell of a 

 working larva, or imperfect female, to enable it to assume the 

 functions necessary for the queen of the swarm. Huber ascer- 

 tained that even the working bees, or imperfect females, are 

 divisible into two classes — the "nurse-bees" who collect the 

 honey and feed and attend upon the young grubs, and the " wax- 

 makers," by whom the materials for the combs are secreted. 

 When the " wax-makers" are fabricating their material, the 

 ''nurse-bees" alone make excursions for honey and farina, sup- 

 plying the others with the necessary sustenance. The researches 

 of Huber merit the highest praise, and to him we are principally 

 indebted for our more perfect knowledge of the proceedings of 

 the bees in their miniature cities, and his labours have shown 

 many of the statements of Aristotle and Pliny, as well as the 

 more poetical pictures of Virgil, to be erroneous. 



* It must have been one of this tribe who annoyed a very observant, careful, 

 and energetic gentleman of my acquaintance, by tampering with his locks, and 

 making him shrewdly suspect the advice often now seen in advertisements, to " look 

 to your locksy'^ was not in his case to be slighted. The garden gate could not be 

 unlocked ! — the key would no longer turn in the wards ! some one must have been 

 at it, and it seemed probable that the " forty thieves" were about, or that some 

 dark plan was in agitation for plunder and rapine ! A watch being set upon the 

 gate, some bees were at last seen to enter the key-hole of the lock, which they had 

 considered well adapted for the shelter of their cells, and the obstruction they had 

 made had prevented the key performing its duty. 



