285 NATURAL SCIENCE. April. 



Spencer probably falls into error in deriving the swarming of bees 

 from a nuptial flight, because the nuptial flight takes place separately 

 in a different manner. But it must be remembered that it is the old 

 female which leads out a swarm, and her successor leads out the next, 

 and so on. It is well-known to all experts in bee-keeping, and is 

 stated in the manuals, that the real cause of swarming is simply want 

 of room. The cells are full either of honey or larvae, and there is not 

 room for any more combs. The workers force the old queen to come 

 with them to find a new home. The story is that they prevent her 

 from destroying the young queens, in order that the old hive may not 

 be left without a queen. But in most that has been written about 

 bees, there is a great deal of teleology and anthropomorphism, which 

 it is impossible to accept without scepticism. The fact is that the 

 workers have one set of instincts, to collect honey, build cells, 

 and rear the progeny of a perfect female. When there is no more 

 room to do this in the cavity they inhabit, they take the female to 

 another cavity. It is practically the custom among skilled apiarians, 

 to prevent swarming by simply adding super-hives. 



We see, therefore, that although Mr. Spencer's suggestion that 

 swarming is to be regarded as a modification of the nuptial flight 

 leads to difficulties which Mr. Piatt Ball rightly holds to be insuper- 

 able, it has not been shown that the present condition of the hive bee 

 can only be explained by the natural selection of indefinite variations. 

 The true explanation can only be reached by regarding the structures, 

 and habits of bees, not as advantageous, but necessary, that is to say, 

 as the necessary results of conditions. Mr. Ball argues that the 

 special instincts commenced in fertile daughters who helped the 

 queen-mother at the cost of delay or neglect of their own maternal 

 functions, a step towards the formation of a neuter caste. It seems 

 to me impossible to believe anything of the kind. It is much more 

 reasonable to believe with Mr. Spencer that the workers looked after 

 the eggs and larvae of the perfect female simply because they were 

 themselves sterile. They were sterile through imperfect nutrition in 

 the larval state, and, therefore, having no sexual instincts, but retain- 

 ing the maternal, they proceeded from hereditary instinct and from 

 imitation to rear their brothers and sisters. No one can deny that it 

 is the queen or perfect female which has been modified rather than 

 the workers, in view of the fact that the pollen-brush on the legs is 

 entirely wanting in the queen bee, though well-developed in the 

 neuter, while in every other species the pollen-brush is present in the 

 perfect female. Are we not entitled to regard this as evidence of 

 the transmission of the effects of disuse ? The female bee transmits 

 the pollen-brush to her imperfect descendants in every generation, 

 simply because they remain permanently at an earlier stage of 

 development. No doubt the pollen-brush would be found to be 

 represented as a transitory stage in the development of the queen 

 bee, if the history of her metamorphosis were completely traced. 



