372 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



that they have taken steps to repair their loss by filling some of the cells 

 v/ith a larger quantity of jelly than is the usual portion of common larvce ; 

 which, however, is intended, it seems, not for the food of the inhabitant, 

 but for a cushion to elevate it, since it is found unconsumed in the cell 

 when the grub has descended into the pyramidal habitation afterwards pre- 

 pared for it.^ 



If, after being removed, their old queen is restored to the hive, they 

 instantly recognise her, and pay her the usual attentions; but if a strange 

 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 intro- 

 duce 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 sensations 

 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 demon- 

 strations of loyalty in the other parts of the hive, is soon acknowledged 

 queen by all, and begins to la}' 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 new 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, knov/ing 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 dis- 

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

 mean is this ; a queen, whose impregnation is retarded beyond the twenty- 



' Huber, ii. 396. 2 Reaum. v. 2G2. 



3 Ibid. v. Pref. xv. * Huber, i. 2GU. 



