248 AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG. 



these labors neither the queen nor the drones take the slightest share. 

 They fall exclusively upon the workers, who, constantly called upon to 

 tend fresh broods, as those brought to maturity are disposed of, devote 

 nearly the whole of their existence to these maternal offices. 



Humble-bees^, which in respect of their general policy must, when 

 compared with bees and wasps, be regarded as rude and untutored villa- 

 gers, exhibit, nevertheless, marks of affection to their young quite as 

 strong as their more polished neighbors. The females, like those of wasps, 

 take a considerable share in their education. When one of them has with 

 great labor constructed a commodious waxen cell, she next furnishes it 

 with a store of pollen moistened with honey ; and then, having deposited 

 six or seven eggs, carefully closes the orifice and minutest interstices with 

 wax. But this is not the whole of her task. By a strange instinct, which, 

 however, may be necessary to keep the population within due bounds, 

 the workers, while she is occupied in laying her eggs, endeavor to seize 

 them from her, and, if they succeed, greedily devour them. To prevent 

 this violence, her utmost activity is scarcely adequate ; and it is only after 

 she has again and again beat off the murderous intruders and pursued 

 them to the furthest verge of the nest, that she succeeds in her operation. 

 When finished, she is still under the necessity of closely guarding the 

 cell, which the gluttonous workers would otherwise tear open, and devour 

 the eggs. This duty she performs for six or eight hours with the vigilance 

 of an Argus, at the end of which time they lose their taste for this food, 

 and will not touch it even when presented to them. Here the labors of 

 the mother cease, and are succeeded by those of the workers. These 

 know the precise hour when the grubs have consumed their stock of food, 

 and from that time to their maturity regularly feed them with either honey 

 or pollen, introduced in their proboscis through a small hole in the cover 

 of the cell opened for the occasion and then carefully closed. 



They are equally assiduous in another operation. As the grubs increase 

 in size, the cell which contained them becomes too small, and in their 

 exertions to be more at ease they split its thin sides. To fill up these 

 breaches as fast as they occur with a patch of wax is the office of the 

 workers, who are constantly on the watch to discover when their services 

 are wanted; and thus the cells daily increase in size, in a way which to 

 an observer ignorant of the process seems very extraordinary. 



The last duty of these affectionate foster-parents is to assist the young 

 bees in cutting open the cocoons which have enclosed them in the state of 

 pupa. A previous labor however must not be omitted. The workers 

 adopt similar measures with the hive-bee for maintaining the young pupae 

 concealed in these cocoons in a genial temperature. In cold weather and 

 at night they get upon them and impart the necessary warmth by brooding 

 over them in clusters.^ Connected with this part of their domestic econ- 



^ Dr. Johnson was ignorant of the etymology of this word. It is clearly derived from 

 the German Hummel or Hummel Biene, a name probably given it from its sound. Our 

 English name would be more significant were it altered to Humming-bee or Booming-bee. 



^ A new and very remarkable fact observed by Mr. Newport, and communicated in his 

 valuable paper on the temperature of insects, is that in the process of incubation above 

 referred to, especially that adopted ten or twelve hours before the nymph makes its appear- 

 ance as a perfect humble-bee, the required augmentation of heat is produced by the nurse 

 or brooding-bees voluntarily increasing the number of their respirations, which at first are 

 very gradual, but become more and more frequent until they reach sometimes 120 or 130 



