446 HYBEKxNATlON OF INSECTS. 



by an admirable provision, become lethargic at pre- 

 cisely the same degree of cold as the ants, and awake 

 at the same period with them*. 



Lastly, there are some few insects which do not 

 seem ever to be torpid, as Podura nivalis, L., which 

 runs with agility on the snow itself; and the common 

 hive-bee ; though with regard to the precise state in 

 which this last passes the winter, this part of its eco- 

 nomy has not been made the subject of such accurate 

 investiofation as is desirable. 



Many autJiors have conceived that it is the most na- 

 tural state of bees in winter to be perfectly torpid at 

 a certain degree of cold, and that their partial revi- 

 viscency, and consequent need of food in our climate, 

 are owing to its variableness and often comparative 

 mildness in winter; whence they have advised placing 

 bees during this season in an ice-house, or on the north 

 side of a wall, w.lere the degree of cold being more 

 uniform, and t!\us their torpidity undisturbed, they 

 imagine no food would be required. So far, however, 

 do these suppositions and conclusions seem from being 

 warranted, tliat Hubcr expressly affirms that, instead of 

 being torpid in winter, the heat in a well-peopled hive 

 continues + 24' or 23° of Reaumur (86° Fahrenheit), 



" Recherches, 202. — In di«;gino; in my garden on the 26lh of January 

 1817, 1 turned up in three or four places colonicsof Myrmica rubra, Latr. 

 in their winter retreats, each of which comprised apparently one or two 

 hundred aiUs, witli several larvae as big as a grain of mustard, closely 

 clustered together, occupying a cavity the size of a hen's egg, in tena- 

 cious clay, at the depth of six inches from the surface. They were very 

 lively; hut though Fahrenheit's thermometer stood at 47" in the shade, I 

 did not then, nor at any other time during the very mild winter, sec a 

 single ant out of its hybernaculum. 



