PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 407 



one be introduced within the first twelve hours after the old one is lost, 

 she is kept a close prisoner till she perishes : if twenty-four hours, as I 

 have before hinted, have expired since they lost their queen, and you 

 introduce a new one, at the moment you set this stranger upon a comb 

 the workers that are near her first touch her with their antennae, and then 

 pass their proboscis over all parts of her body ; place is next given to 

 others, who salute her in the same manner ; all then beat their wings at 

 the same time, and range themselves in a circle round their new sovereign. 

 A kind of agitation is now communicated to the whole surface of the 

 comb, which brings all the bees upon it to see what is going forward. 

 This may be called the first shout of the applauding multitude to welcome 

 the arrival of their new sovereign. The circle of courtiers increases ; 

 they vibrate their wings and bodies, but without tumult, as if their sensa- 

 tions were very agreeable. When she begins to move, the circle opens 

 to let her pass, and all follow her steps. She is received with similar 

 demonstrations of loyalty in the other parts of the hive, is soon acknowl- 

 edged queen by all, and begins to lay eggs. Reaumur put some bees 

 into a hive without their queen, and then introduced to them one that he 

 had taken when half perished with cold, and kept in a box, in which she 

 had covered herself with powder. The bees immediately owned her for 

 their queen, employed themselves very anxiously in cleaning her and 

 warming her, sometimes turning her upon her back for this purpose, and 

 then began to construct cells in their habitation.^ Even when the bees 

 have got young brood, have built or are building royal cells, and are 

 engaged in feeding these hopes of their hive, knowing that their great aim 

 is already accomplished, they cease all these employments when this 

 intruder comes amongst them. 



With regard to the ordinary attention and homage that they pay to 

 their sovereigns, the bees do more than respect their queen, says Reaumur ; 

 they are constantly on the watch to make themselves useful to her, and 

 to render her every kind office ; they are for ever offering her honey ; 

 they lick her with their proboscis, and wherever she goes she has a court 

 to attend upon her.^ It may here be observed, that the stimulant which 

 excites the bees to these acts of homage is the pregnant state of their 

 queen, and her fitness to maintain the population of the hive ; all they do 

 being with a view to the public good : for while she remains a virgin she 

 is treated with the utmost indifference, which is exchanged, as soon as 

 impregnation has taken place, for the above marks of attachment.^ 



The instinct of the bees, however, does not always enable them to 

 distinguish a partially fertile queen from one that is universally so. What 

 I mean is this: a queen, whose impregnation is retarded beyond the 

 twenty-eighth day of her whole existence, lays only male egg, which 

 are of no use whatever to the community, unless they are at the same 

 time provided with a sufficient supply of workers. Yet even a queen of 

 this description, and sometimes one that is entirely sterile, is treated by 

 them with the same respect and homage as a fertile one. This seems to 

 evince an amiable feeling in these creatures, attachment to the person as 

 well as to the functions of the sovereign ; which is further manifested by 

 their unwillingness at first to receive a new sovereign upon the loss or 



> Reaum. v. 262. * Ibid. v. Pref. xv. ^ Huber, i. 269. 



