24 ELEMENTS OF EKTOMOLOGY. 



procal aversion ; in traversing the hive they meet without showing the 

 smallest indications of resentment. If a perfect stranger (|nccn is 

 introduced, either when one already exists in a hive or within a 

 few hours after she is lost, that stranger is immediately surrounded, 

 and so closely henmied in hy the bees that she sometimes dies. But 

 here the nuitilated stranger was quite well received ; her arrival cre- 

 ated no discontents in the hive, and the workers paid the same ho- 

 mage to her as to their own. " Was it," asks ?.I. Iluber, " because 

 after losing the antennae these queens no longer retained any cha- 

 racteristic which distinguished^ie one from the other? lam the more 

 inclined to adopt this conjecture, from the bad reception experienced 

 by a third jierfect queen introduced into the same hive: it is probably 

 because they observe the same sensations from those two females, and 

 want tlie means of distinguishing them from each other." Bees ne- 

 ver abandon their queen ; her presence seems almost indispensable to 

 their existence; and, as before observed, the queen never forsakes her 

 hive. If she docs so to found a new colony, the bees accompany her in 

 her flight. Here, as both the mutilated queens constantly endeavoured 

 to escape, the tirst and third were removed, and the entrance of the hive 

 enlarged; the fertile mutilated one therefore left it, but none of the 

 workers followed her; she was allowed to depart alone. The wise pro- 

 visions of nature are amply illustrated by these facts. It is fortunate 

 that a queen deprived of the antenna^ is thus impelled to leave the 

 hive: while she remains, the bees incessantly attend her, and never 

 think of procuring another. The secret which the workers possess, 

 of converting a common worm into one, which will become a queen, 

 nuist be exercised within the first three days of its existence; therefore 

 if the queen remained, this limited term would elapse. Neither can 

 her presence contribute to preserve the hive ; for mutilation of the an- 

 tenna; deprives her of the power of discriminating the different kind of 

 cells adapted to receive the various species of eggs which she lays. 

 M. Iluber considers the antenna; as the organs of touch or smell, 

 though he declines afhrming which of these senses resides in them; 

 and thinks it possible that they may be so organized as to fuliil both 

 functions at once. 



Mr. Kirby, in speaking of the F.ncera (or long-horned bee), says : 

 *' A singular circumstance distinguishes their antenna?, which, to 

 the best of my knowledge, has never before been noticed, and which 

 may possibly lead to the discovery of the use of these organs. Placed 

 under a powerful magnifier, the last ten joints appear to be composed 

 of innumerable hexagons, similar to those of which the eyes of these 

 insects consist. If we reason from analogy, this remarkable cir- 

 cumstance will lead us to conjecture, that the sense of which this 

 part so essential to insects is the organ, may bear some relation to that 

 conveyed by the eyes. As they are furnished with no instrument fbi> 



