170 SOCIAL LIFE IN THE INSECT WORLD 



consisted of flesh, and after that nothing in particular 

 occurred. The honey is encountered later, when the 

 bee is largely consumed. If hesitation and repugnance 

 were manifested at this point they came too late to be 

 conclusive ; the sickness of the larvae might be due to 

 other causes, known or unknown. We must offer honey 

 at the very beginning, before artificial rearing has spoilt 

 the grub's appetite. To offer pure honey would, of 

 course, be useless ; no carnivorous creature would touch 

 it, even were it starving. I must spread the honey on 

 meat ; that is, I must smear the dead bee with honey, 

 lightly varnishing it with a camel's-hair brush. 



Under these conditions the problem is solved with 

 the first few mouthfuls. The grub, having bitten on 

 the honeyed bee, draws back as though disgusted ; 

 hesitates for a long time ; then, urged by hunger, begins 

 again ; tries first on one side, then on another ; in the 

 end it refuses to touch the bee again. For a few days 

 it pines upon its rations, which are almost intact, then 

 dies. As many as are subjected to the same treatment 

 perish in the same way. 



Do they simply die of hunger in the presence of food 

 which their appetites reject, or are they poisoned by the 

 small amount of honey absorbed at the first bites ? I 

 cannot say ; but, whether poisonous or merely repug- 

 nant, the bee smeared with honey is always fatal to them ; 

 a fact which explains more clearly than the unfavourable 

 circumstances of the former experiment my lack of 

 success with the freshly killed bees. 



This refusal to touch honey, whether poisonous or 

 repugnant, is connected with principles of alimentation 

 too general to be a gastronomic peculiarity of the 



