PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS, 165 



that a swarm conducted by the old queen increases so 

 much in the space of three weeks as to send forth a new 

 colony. Being already impregnated, she is in a condi- 

 tion to oviposit as soon as there are cells ready to receive 

 her eggs : and an all-wise Providence has so ordered it, 

 that at this time she lays only such as produce workers. 

 And it is the first employment of her subjects to con- 

 struct cells for this purpose *. The young queens that 

 conduct the secondary swarms usually pair the day after 

 they are settled in their new abode ; when the indiffe- 

 rence with which their subjects have hitherto treated 

 them is exchanged for the usual respect and homage. 



We may suppose that one motive with the bees tor 

 following the old queen, is their respect for her; but the 

 reasons that induce them to follow the virgin queens, to 

 whom they not only appear to manifest no attachment, 

 but rather the reverse, seem less easy to be assigned. 

 Probably the high temperature of the hive during these 

 times of tumultuous agitation may be the principal cause 

 that operates upon them. In a populous hive the ther- 

 mometer commonly stands between 92° and 97° ; but 

 during the tumult that precedes swarming it rises above 

 104°, a heat intolerable to these animals''. This is 

 M. Pluber's opinion. Yet still, though a high tem- 

 perature will well account for the departure of the swarm 

 from the hive with a virgin cjueen, if there were really no 

 attachment, (as he appears to think,) is it not extraordi- 

 nary, that when this cause no longer operates upon 

 them, they should agglomerate about her, as they always 

 tlo, be unsettled and agitated without her, and cjuiet 

 wlien she is with them ? Is it not reasonable to sup- 

 • Huber, i. .303. " Ibid. 280. 



