(18 BHES. 



nurse-bee, who scarcely leaves the cell for a sing-le minute ; 

 when one bee has left, another, in general, takes its place. 

 Previously to this period the incubation on the cell is per- 

 formed only occasionally, but becomes more constantly at- 

 tended to nearer the hour of the development. The manner 

 in which the nurse-bee performs its office, is by fixing- itself 

 upon the cell of the nymph, and beginning" to respire very 

 gradually j in a short time its respiration becomes more and 

 more frequent, until it sometimes respires at the rate of 130 

 or 140 per minute." In further experiments on this subject 

 a common humble-bee was confined in a phial containing 

 three cubic inches, and was found by its violent excitement 

 consequent on being thus imprisoned, to have added no less 

 than four degrees of the temperature to the air in the bottle 

 in a space of five minutes. As, therefore, violent excitement 

 produces heat, so inactivity causes heat to be lost, and on 

 that account, the temperature of hybernating bees is very 

 low. According to Mr. Newport, the contradictions of 

 former observers respecting the heat of the hive during' 

 winter is easily accounted for by this power of changing the 

 temperature at will. When the hive is at rest, the tem- 

 perature is usually only a few degrees above that of the 

 external atmosphere, but if the inhabitants are disturbed, 

 the temperature immediately rises. The swarming season, 

 of course, renders the hive extremely hot, as almost every 

 bee, particularly those who intend to form the swarm, 

 is in a violent state of excitement. In one experiment, 

 when the temperature of the external atmosphere was 

 34 1 degrees, the temperature of an undisturbed hive was 

 found to be 48 g degrees, while that of a hive whose 

 inhabitants had been thrown into a state of great mdig- 

 iiation, by tapping on the exterior, speedily rose to 102 

 degrees. 



These experiments among other things serve to show 

 that we need not trouble ourselves very much about the 

 temperature of the hive, either in summer or winter, as the 

 bees can either raise it if they are too cold, or lower it if 

 they are too hot; while, however, they can bear a rapid change 

 from cold to heat as was above mentioned, they cannot bear 

 a sudden change from heat to cold. If in the depth of 

 winter, a hive is tapped, a bee comes out to see what is the 



