HYBERNATION OF INSECTS. 449 



and ventilate their hive ; — if, as both he and Swam- 

 merdam state, they feed their young- brood in the depth 

 of winter — it seems impossible to admit that they ever 

 can be in the torpid condition which Reaumur sup- 

 poses, in which food, so far from being necessary, is in- 

 jurious to them. In fact, Reaumur himself in another 

 place informs us, that bees are so infinitely more sen- 

 sible of cold than the generality of insects, that they 

 perish when in numbers so small as to be unable to 

 generate sufficient animal heat to counteract the ex- 

 ternal cold, even at 11° R. above freezing'^ (57° F.) ; 

 which corresponds with what Huber has observed (as 

 quoted above) of the high temperature of well-peopled 

 hives, even in very severe weather. We are forced, 

 then, to conclude that this usually most accurate of ob- 

 servers has in the present instance been led into error, 

 chiefly, it is probable, from the clustering of bees in 

 the hives in cold weatlier ; but which, instead of being, 

 as he conceived, an indication of torpidity, would seem 

 to be intended, as Huber asserts, as a preservative against 

 the benumbing effects of cold. 



Bees, then, do not appear to pass the winter in a 

 state of torpidity in our clin^ates, and probably not in 

 any others. Populous swarms inhabiting hives formed 

 of the hollow trunks of trees, used in many northern 

 regions, or of other materials that are bad conductors 

 of heat, seem able to generate and keep up a tempera- 

 ture sufficient to counteract the intensest cold to which 

 they are ordinarily exposed. At the same time, how- 

 ever, I think we may infer, that though bees are not 

 strictly torpid at that lowest degree of heat which they 



" Rcaiim. GTS. Compare also GT3. 

 YOL. IT. 2 G 



