190 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



cells of the males, and continues in them without mo- 

 tion a very long- time. Even then the workers form a 

 circle round her, and brush the uncovered part of her 

 abdomen. The th'ones while reposing do not enter 

 the ceils, l>ut cluster in the combs, and sometimes re- 

 main without stirring a limb for eighteen or twenty- 

 hours ''. 



Reaumur observes, that in a hive the population of 

 which amounts to 18,000, the number that enter the 

 hive in a minute is a hundred ; which, allowing four- 

 teen hours in the day for their labour, makes 84,000 : 

 thus every individual must make four excursions daily, 

 and some five. In hives where the population was 

 smaller, the numbers that entered were comparatively 

 greater, so as to give six excursions or more to each 

 l^ee''. But in this calculation Reaumur does not seem 

 to take into the account those that are employed within 

 the hive in building or feeding the young brood ; Avhich 

 must render the excursions of each bee still more nu- 

 merous. He proceeds further to ground upon this 

 statement a calculation of the quantity of bee-bread 

 that may be collected in one day by such a hive ; and 

 lie found, supposing only half the number to collect it, 

 tliat it V onld amount to more than a pound ; so that in 

 oiie season, one such hive might collect a hundred 



V. ildman (p. 45), " were broken off and left at the bottom of the hive, 

 h gTeat number of bees have s,one and placed themselves upon them.'" 

 Tlii; ilooks lik(; incubation. Reaumur liDwever affirms (p. 591) that if 

 pari of a comb falls and loses its perpendicular direction, the bees, as if 

 cuiiscious that they would come to nothing, pull out and destroy all the 

 larvLE. They mjglit perhaps remain perpendicular in the case observed 

 by WiWiuaii. 



" ileauiii. V. 431. Iluber, ri. 212. " Reaura, v. 432— 



