416 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



witnessed, was convinced that impregnation took place according to the 

 Tisual law of nature, and, as he supposed, within the hive.^ The former 

 part of this opinion Huber has confirmed by indubitable proofs ; but he 

 further discovered that these animals pair abroad, in the air, during the 

 flight of the queen : a fact which renders a large number of males neces- 

 sary, to insure her impregnation in due time to lay eggs that will produce 

 workers.^ Huber also observed those appearances which induced Debraw 

 to adopt the opinion I mentioned just now, and was at first disposed to 

 think them real ; but afterwards, upon a nearer inspection, he discovered 

 that it was an illusion caused by the reflection of the rays of light.^ 



In fine weather the drones, during the warmest part of the day, take 

 their flights ; and it is then that they pair with the queen in mid air, the 

 result being invariably the death of the drone. No one has yet discovered, 

 unless the proceedings observed by Debraw and Bonnet may be so inter- 

 preted, that when in the hive they take any share in the business of it, their 

 great employment within doors being to eat. Their life, however, is of very 

 short duration, the eggs that produce drones being laid in the course of April 

 and May, and their destruction being usually accomplished in the months 

 of July and August. The bees then, as M. Huber observes, chase them 

 about, and pursue them to the bottom of the hives, where they assemble 

 in crowds. At the same time numerous carcasses of drones may be seen 

 on the ground before the hives. Hence he conjectured, though he never 

 could detect them engaged in this work upon the combs, that they were 

 stung to death by the workers. To ascertain how their death was 

 occasioned, he caused a table to be glazed, on which he placed six hives ; 

 and under this table he employed the patient and indefatigable Burnens, 

 who was to him instead of eyes, to watch their proceedings. On the 4th 

 of July this accurate observer saw the massacre going on in all the hives 

 at the same time, and attended by the same circumstances. The table 

 was crowded with workers, who, apparently in great rage, darted upon the 

 drones as soon as they arrived at the bottom of the hive, seizing them by 

 their antennae, their legs, and their wings, and killing them by violent 

 strokes of their sting, which they generally inserted between the segments 

 of the abdomen. The moment this fearful weapon entered their body, 

 the poor helpless creatures expanded their wings and expired. After this, 

 as if fearful that they were not sufficiently dispatched, the bees repeated 

 their strokes, so that they often found it difficult to extricate their sting. On 

 the following day they were equally busy in the work of slaughter ; but 

 their fury, their own having perished, was chiefly vented upon those drones 

 which, after having escaped from the neighboring hives, had sought refuge 

 with them. Not content with destroying those that were in the perfect 

 state, they attacked also such male pupa) as were left in their cells; and 

 then dragging them forth, sucked the fluid from their bodies and cast them 

 out of the hive."* 



But though in hives containing a queen perfectly fertile (that is, which 

 lays both worker and male eggs) this is the unhappy fate of the drones, 

 yet in those where the queen only lays male eggs they are suffered to 

 remain unmolested ; and in hives deprived of their queen, they also find a 

 secure asylum.^ 



» Reaum. v. 503—. » Huber, i. 24—. ^ ibid. 37—. * Ibid. 195. * Ibid. 199. 



