278 N. E. McINDOO 



LONGEVITY OF ISOLATED BEES 



The statement is often made that when a bee is isolated and 

 can not communicate with other bees it dies within a short time. 

 To test this, 40 middle-aged workers were carefully selected and 

 were placed singly in small triangular observation cases, two of 

 whose sides were 5 inches, and the third side 4 inches in length. 

 The depth was ^ inch; the top was glass, and the bottom was 

 wire screen. These bees always had plenty of candy and were 

 given water occasionally, and the cases were placed side by side 

 on a box by a window. In these circumstances the bees could 

 not communicate with each other by sight or touch, but smell, 

 and hearing — if they hear — were not excluded. These workers 

 seemed normal in every respect and they lived from 4 days and 

 8 hours to 33 days and 22 hours with an average of 11 days and 

 20 hours. 



The same experiment was performed with 100 active young 

 bees that were just emerging from their cells and had never seen 

 or associated with other bees. One might expect bees which 

 had just emerged to live longer than middle-aged ones. How- 

 ever, this was not the case, for they lived from 1 day and 16 hours 

 to 26 days and 4 hours, with an average of 4 days and 10 hours. 

 The isolated middle-aged bees lived more than twice as long as 

 the young workers. 



LONGEVITY OF BEES WITH STINGS EXTRACTED 



The opinion is sometimes expressed that when a bee loses its 

 sting it dies within a short time. To learn whether this is true 

 the stings of 100 middle-aged bees were removed by holding a 

 bee by a wing against the fleshy side of a meat rind. The bee 

 stings the meat rind and loses its sting. In every instance the 

 sting with all its accessory parts, including the poison glands, was 

 pulled out. Several times half, and a few times the whole in- 

 testine was pulled out with the sting. These bees were intro- 

 duced in equal numbers into two large observation cases, and were 

 fed candy and given water as usual. Most of them behaved 



