408 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



death of their old one. Nay, this respect is sometimes shown to the 

 carcass of a defunct queen, which Huber assures us he has seen bees 

 treat with the same attention that they had shown her when ahve, for a 

 long time preferring her inanimate corpse to the fertile queens that he 

 offered to them.^ He attributes this to some agreeable sensation which 

 they experience from their queens, independent of their fecundity. But 

 since virgin queens, as we have seen, do not excite it, more probably it is 

 a remnant of their former attachment, first excited by her fecundity, and 

 afterwards strengthened and continued by habit. 



I may here introduce an interesting anecdote related by Reaumur, 

 which strongly marks the attachment of bees to their queen when appa- 

 rently lifeless. He took one out of the water quite motionless, and seem- 

 ingly dead, which had lost part of one of its legs. Bringing it home, he 

 placed it amongst some workers that he had found in the same situation, 

 most of which he had revived by means of warmth ; some, however, still 

 being in as bad a state as the poor queen. No sooner did these revived 

 workers perceive the latter in this wretched condition, than they appeared 

 to compassionate her case, and did not cease to lick her with their tongues 

 till she showed signs of returning animation ; which the bees no sooner 

 perceived, than they set up a general hum, as if for joy at the happy 

 event. AH this time they paid no attention to the workers, who were in 

 the same miserable state.™ 



On a former occasion I have mentioned the laying of the eggs by the 

 queen ; but as I did not then at all enlarge upon it, I shall now explain 

 the process more in detail. In a subsequent letter I shall notice what has 

 puzzled learned apiarists — her fecundation ; which is now ascertained 

 beyond contradiction, from the observations of M. Huber, to take place 

 in the open air, and to be followed by the death of the unfortunate male.'' 

 It is to be recollected that, from September to April, generally speaking, 

 there are no males in the hives ; yet during this period the queen often ovipos- 

 its : a former fecundation, therefore, must fertilize all the eggs laid in this in- 

 terval. The impregnation, in order to ensure complete fertility, must not be 

 too long retarded : for, as I before observed, if this be delayed beyond 

 the twenty-eighth day of her existence, her ovaries become so vitiated 

 that she can no longer lay eggs that will produce workers, but can only 

 furnish the hive with a male population ; which, however high a privilege 

 it may be accounted amongst men, is the reverse of it amongst the bees. 

 When this is the case, the abdomen of the queen becomes so enlarged 

 that she is no longer able to fly"* ; and, what is remarkable, she loses that 

 instinctive animosity which stimulates the fertile ones to attack their rivals.^ 

 Thus she seems to own that she is not equal to the duties of her station, 

 and can tolerate another to discharge them in her room. When we con- 

 sider how much virgin queens are slighted by their subjects, we may 

 suppose that nature urges them to take the opportunity of the first warm 

 day, when the males fly forth, to pair with one of them. 



When fecundation has not been retarded, forty-six hours after it has 

 taken place the queen begins to lay eggs that will produce workers, and 

 continues for the subsequent eleven months, more or less, to lay them 



' Huber, i. 322. « Reaum. v. 265. 3 Huber, i. 63—. ♦ Schirach, 257. 



* Huber, i. 319—. 



