BEES. 73 



armed; and are always killed by the neuters 

 about the month of September. 



Heat is the life of these insects. The least 

 degree of cold benumbs them ; and in winter, 

 unless they are ail crowded together, they 

 perish. Their enemies are the wasp and the 

 hornet, who with their teeth rip them open 

 to suck out the honey contained in their 

 bladder. Sparrows have also been seen with 

 one in their bill, and another in each claw. 



There is so great a degree of attachment 

 subsisting between the working Bees and 

 their queen, that if, by any accident, she is 

 destroyed, the labours of the community are 

 at an end, and the rest of the animals leave 

 the hive and disperse. If, however, another 

 queen be given them, joy springs up, and 

 they crowd around her, and soon again apply 

 to their operations. Even the prospect of 

 seeing a queen will support them : this has 

 been proved by giving to a hive that had lost 

 its own queen the crysalis of another. If a 

 queen be taken from a hive and kept apart 

 from the working Bees, she will refrise to eat, 

 and in the course of four or five days will die 

 of hunger. 



