1816.) Royal Institute of France. AGT 
antennz, there remains scarcely any trace of head, and the true 
jaws have disappeared. There exist only supernumerary jaws, that 
is, feet converted into jaws. 
Such is a short sketch of a very original work, the proofs of 
which have for their basis observations so long and so numerous, 
that we cannot find room for them in our analysis. 
M. Delabillardiere, who continues to observe his bee-hives, has 
made some new observations on that subject, so admirable and so ° 
inexhaustible. 
It is known that, after the last swarm has left the hive, the working 
bees, similar in point of ingratitude to many other more elevated 
beings, make haste to rid themselves of the males, which are no 
longer necessary for propagation, and the support of which would 
consume a great deal of provisions. They make a dreadful carnage 
of them; but if we are to judge by the expressions of some authors, 
this business is always terminated in a few days. In fact, however, 
it lasts several weeks. When the hives are weak, or contain but 
few working bees, the operation lasts a much longer time. The 
males are even altogether spared in those hives that contain no 
queen, or when the queen, as sometimes happens, produces only 
males. M. Delabillardiere gives a detailed example of this rule, 
already recognized by Huber. Those who keep bees, therefore, 
may discover by the great number of these drones remaining in the 
hive after the usual time, that no more new swarms are to be ex- 
pected from it, and that the hive may be rifled without inconve- 
nience. 
Every body knows the noise similar to that of the balance of a 
pendulum, which has long inspired the superstitious with terror, 
and which has received the name of death-watch. Naturalists soon 
supposed that it must proceed from an insect. Some have ascribed 
it to a spider ; others to the little animal wood-louse ; and others to 
the little coleopterous animal called vrillette, because it pierces 
wood with an instrument like a drill (vri//e).. Among those who 
have adopted the last opinion, some ascribe the noise to the perfect 
animal, others to its larva; and all have supposed that it produced 
the noise while boring the wood, either as food, or to make its way 
through it. M. de Latreille had observed that the vrillette makes the 
noise, not while boring wood, but by striking. M. Delabillardiere 
has established the same fact by a series of observations ; and as he 
made them on a female, he supposes that the object of the noise is 
to call the male, as is the case with many other female insects at 
the time of propagation. * 
* All this, and a great deal more, was long ago described by Allen and 
Derham in the Phil. Trans. vol. xx. p. 376; vol. xxii. p. 832, This animal is the 
ptinus pulsator of Linn, Derham describes and figures another animal that also 
beats. Phil, Trans, vol. xxiv, p. 1586,—T. 
(To be continued. ) 
