410 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



While our prolific lady is engaged in this employment, her court con- 

 sists of from four to twelve attendants, which are deposed nearly in a 

 circle, with their heads turned towards her. After laying from two to six 

 eggs, she remains still, reposing for eight or nine minutes. During this 

 interval the bees in her train redouble their attentions, licking her fondly 

 with their tongues. Generally speaking, she lays only one egg in a cell ; 

 but when she is pressed, and there are not cells enough, from two to four 

 have been found in one. In this case, as if they were aware of the con- 

 sequences, the provident workers remove all but one. From an experi- 

 ment of Huber's, it appears that the instinct of the queen invariably 

 directs her to deposit worker eggs in worker cells ; for when he confined 

 one, during her course of laying worker eggs, where she could only come 

 at male cells, she refused to oviposit in them ; and trying in vain to make 

 her escape, they at length dropped from her ; upon which the workers 

 devoured them. Retarded queens, however, lose this instinct, and often, 

 though they lay only male eggs, oviposit in worker cells, and even in 

 royal ones. In this latter case the workers themselves act as if they 

 suffered in their instinct from the imperfect state of their queen ; for they 

 feed these male larvse with royal jelly, and treat them as they would a 

 real queen. Though male eggs deposited in w^orker cells produce small 

 males, their education in a royal cell with " royal dainties" adds nothing 

 to their ordinary dimensions.^ 



The swarming of bees is a very curious and interesting subject, to 

 which, since a female is the sine qua non on this occasion, I may very 

 properly call your attention here. You will recollect that I said some- 

 thing upon the principle of emigrations, when I was amusing you with 

 the history of ants ; but the object with them seems to be merely a change 

 of station for one more convenient or less exposed to injury, and not to 

 diminish a superabundant population. Whereas in the societies of the 

 hive-bee, the latter is the general cause of emigrations, which invariably 

 take place every year, if their numbers require it ; if not, when the male 

 eggs are laid no royal cells are constructed, and no swarm is led forth. 

 What might be the case with ants, were they confined to hives, we cannot 

 say. Formicaries in general are capable of indefinite enlargement, there- 

 fore want of room does not cause emigration ; — but bees being confined 

 to a given space, which they possess not the means of enlarging, to avoid 

 the ill effects resulting from being too much crowded, when their popula- 

 tion exceeds a certain limit they must necessarily emigrate. Sometimes — 

 for instance, when wasps have got into a hive — the bees will leave it, 

 in order to fly from an inconvenience or enemy which they cannot other- 

 wise avoid ; but it does not very often happen that they wholly desert 

 a hive. 



Apiarists tell us that, in this country, the best season for swarming is 

 from the middle of May till the middle of June ; but swarms sometimes 

 occur so early as the beginning of April, and as late as the middle of 

 August.^ The first swarm, as I before observed, is led by the reigning 

 queen, and takes place when she is so much reduced in size, in conse- 

 quence of the number of eggs she has laid (for previously to oviposition 

 her gravid body is so heavy that she can scarcely drag it along), as to 



» Huber, i, 122. * Keys On Bees, 76. 



