516 INSTINCT OF I.NSECTS. 



Huber gives of the manner in which the bees of some 

 of his neighbours protected themselves against the at- 

 tacks of the death's-head moth (Sp/iinx Atropos), laid 

 before you in a former letter^, by so closing the en- 

 trance of the hive with walls, arcades, casements, and 

 bastions, built of a mixture of wax and propolis, that 

 these insidious marauders could no longer intrude them- 

 selves. 



We can scarcely attribute these elaborate fortifica- 

 tions to reason simply ; for it appears that bees have 

 recourse to a similar defensive expedient when attacked 

 even by other bees ; and the means employed seem too 

 subtle and too well adapted to the end to be the result 

 of this faculty in a bee. 



But on the other hand, if it be most probable that in 

 this instance instinct was chiefly concerned, if we im- 

 partially consider the facts, it seems impossible to deny 

 that reason had some share in the operations. Pure 

 instinct would have taught the bees to fortify them- 

 selves on the Jtrst attack. If the occupants of a hive 

 had been taken unawares by these gigantic aggressors 

 one night, on the second, at least, the entrance should 

 have been barricadoed. But it appears clear from the 

 statement of Huber, that it was not until the hives had 

 been repeatedly attacked and robbed of nearly their 

 whole stock of honey, that the bees betook themselves 

 to the plan so successfully adopted for the security of 

 their remaining treasures ; so that reason taught by 

 experience, seems to have called into action their dor- 

 mant instinct''. 



If it be thus probable that reason has some influence 

 » See above, p. 267. " Huber, ii. 289—, 



