PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 419 



tions, so that it may be applied both to the concave and convex surface of 

 a petal, ^nd wipe them both ; and thus by a virtuous theft robs it of all 

 its nectar. All the while this is going on, she keeps herself in a constant 

 vibratory motion. The object of the industrious animal is not, like the 

 more selfish butterfly, to appropriate this treasure to herself. It goes 

 into the honey-bag as into a laboratory, where it is transformed into pure 

 honey ; and when she returns to the hive, she regurgitates it in this form 

 into one of the cells appropriated to that purpose; in order that, after 

 tribute is paid from it to the queen, it may constitute a supply of food for 

 the rest of the community. 



In collecting honey, bees do not solely confine themselves to flowers ; 

 they will sometimes very greedily absorb the sweet juices of fruits : this I 

 have frequently observed with respect to the raspberries in my garden, 

 and have noticed it, as you may recollect, in a former letter. They will 

 also eat sugar, and produce wax from it ; but, from Huber's observations, 

 it appears not calculated to supply the place of honey in the jelly with 

 which the larvae are fed.^ Though the great mass of the food of bees is 

 collected from flowers, they do not wholly confine themselves to a vegeta- 

 ble diet ; for, besides the honeyed secretion of the Aphides, the possession 

 of which they will sometimes dispute with the ants^, upon particular 

 occasions they will eat the eggs of the queen. They are very fond also of 

 the fluid that oozes from the cells of the pupae, and will suck eagerly all 

 that is fluid in their abdomen after they are destroyed by their rivals."^ 

 Several flowers that produce much honey they pass by; in some instances, 

 from inability to get at it. Thus, for this reason probably, they do not 

 attempt those of the trumpet-honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens) , which, 

 if separated from the germen after they are open, will yield two or three 

 drops of the purest nectar. So that were this shrub cultivated with that 

 view, much honey in its original state might be obtained from a small 

 number of plants. In other cases, it appears to be the poisonous quality 

 of their honey that induces bees to neglect certain flowers. You have 

 doubtless observed the conspicuous white nectaries of the crown imperial 

 (^Fritillaria imperialist, and that they secrete abundance of this fluid. It 

 tempts in vain the passing bee, probably aware of some noxious quality 

 that it possesses. The oleander (Neriiim Oleander) yields a honey that 

 proves fatal to thousands of imprudent flies; but our bees, more wise and 

 cautious, avoid it. Occasionally, perhaps, in particular seasons, when 

 flowers are less numerous than common, this instinct of the bees appears 

 to fail them, or to be overpowered by their desire to collect a sufficient 

 store of honey for their purposes, and they suffer for their want of self- 

 denial. Sometimes whole swarms have been destroyed by merely alight- 

 ing upon poisonous trees. This happened to one in the county of West 

 Chester in the province of New York, which settled upon the branches 

 of the poison-ash (^Rhus vernix). In the following morning the imprudent 

 animals were all found dead, and swelled to more than double their usual 

 size.'* Whether the honey extracted from the species of the genus Kal- 

 mia, Andromeda, Rhododendron, &,c. be hurtful to the bees themselves, is 

 not ascertained ; but, as has been before observed, it is often poisonous to 



» Huber, ii. 82. * Ahhk Boisier, quoted in Mills On Bees, 24. 



' Schirach, 45. Huber, i. 179. ■* Nicholson's Journal, xxiii. 287. 



