-BEES. 52;' 



nre in all cases laid late, but it does appear a very sing-ular 

 fact that a delay of so sliort a period should metamorphose 

 the whole of the contents of the ovaries into male egg's. 

 Hiiber conceived that the drones appeared thus late on ac- 

 count of the young queens. 



A sad business remains behind. The post of queen's- 

 favourite has always been an honour of dubious value, often 

 of tragic ending, even among mankind ; with bees it is in- 

 evitably a fatal destiny. No sooner is the business of swarm- 

 ing ended, and the worker-bees satisfied there will be no 

 lack of fertile queens, than issues the terrible edict for the 

 massacre of the drones. Poor fellows ! It is to be hoped 

 they comfort themselves with the reflection that their fate is 

 an everlasting homily, presented by nature in dogmatical 

 but most effective fashion, of the uselessness of all who labour 

 not for their living. If one must die for the good of one's 

 kind, by all means let it be as a martyr. Poor fellows! 

 how they dart in and out, and up and down the hive, in the 

 vain hope of escape. The workers are inexorable. Huber 

 tells us the latter plant their stings so deeply—for the most 

 part between the segments of the abdomen — that they can- 

 not extricate themselves without turning as upon a pivot- 

 The cruelty apparent in the fierceness of the attack is per- 

 haps onl}^ kindness, for the wound is immediately fatal : the 

 drones expand their wings, and die. All the drones, how- 

 ever, are not stung to death. Some are merely disabled by 

 the workers, who bite and injure the roots of their wings so 

 as to prevent them from taking to flight, while others appear 

 to be merely expelled from the commimity and escape un- 

 hurt, although they are too wise to attempt to return ; at all 

 events, whether stung, maimed, or expelled, they all perish, 

 and probably the fate of those who perish within the hive is 

 to be preferred to that of the unfortunate bees who suffer a 

 lingering death from cold or hunger, as they can find no 

 warm hive to shelter them, and do not know how to seek 

 honey from flowers, as they have always fed from the stores 

 at home. The unfortunate drones do not resign themselves 

 to their fate as meekly as might be expected, but offer a 

 most vigorous resistance to their murderers. Their struggles, 

 are of course vain, for they are overpowered by numbers,, 

 and their jaws and wings, however powerful, can tlttj.fipprlx 



ILLINOIS LIBRARY 



