Chap. .16.] bees. \y 



first having the appearance of a white maggot, and lying across 

 and adhering so tenaciously to the wax as to seem to be part of it. 

 The king, however, from the earliest moment, is of the colour 

 of honey, just as though he were made of the choicest flowers, 

 nor has he at any time the form of a grub, but from the very 

 first is provided with wings. 53 The rest of the bees, as soon 

 as they begin to assume a shape, have the name of nympha^ 

 while the drones are called sirenes, or cephenes. If a per- 

 son takes off the head of either kind before the wings are 

 formed, the rest of the body is considered a most choice morsel 

 by the parents. In process of time the parent bees instil 

 nutriment into them, and sit upon them, making on this occa- 

 sion a loud humming noise, for the purpose, it is generally 

 supposed, of generating that warmth which is so requisite for 

 hatching the young. At length the membrane in which each 

 of them is enveloped, as though it lay in an egg, bursts asunder, 

 and the whole swarm comes to light. 



This circumstance was witnessed at the suburban retreat of 

 a man of consular dignity near Rome, whose hives were made 

 of transparent lantern horn : the young were found to be deve- 

 loped in the space of forty-five days. In some combs, there is 

 found what is known by the name of " nail" wax ; 55 it is bitter 

 and hard, and is only met with when the bees have failed to 

 hatch their young, either from disease or a natural sterility, 

 it is the abortion, in fact, of the bees. The young ones, the 

 moment they are hatched, commence working with their 

 parents, as though in a course of training, and the newly-born 

 king is accompanied by a multitude of his own age. 



That the supply may not run short, each swarm rears seve- 

 ral kings ; but afterwards, when this progeny begins to arrive 

 at a mature age, with one accord 56 they put to death the in- 

 ferior ones, lest they should create discord in the swarm. 57 

 There are two sorts of king bees ; those of a reddish colour are 

 better than the black and mottled ones. The kings have 



53 This is not the fact. The queen bee commences as a larva, and that 

 the larva of a working bee, Cuvier says, which, placed in a larger cell, 

 and nurtured in a different manner, developes its sex and becomes the queen 

 of the new swarm. 



54 They are then in the chrysalis state. 



55 "Clavus." 



56 It is the first hatched queen that puts the others to death. 



57 In consequence, really, of their pregnancy. 



VOL. III. C 



