18S0 



GLEANINGS IN I3EE CULTURE. 



273 



confinement at Philadelphia. He feeds them sugar, 

 and finds that they thrive even in confinement far 

 away from their native home among: the rocks and 

 the mountains. 



The worker ants procure their food nt night. 

 This consists of nectar from a species of oak galls. 

 Upon our common elm, Ulmua Americana, we fre- 

 quently meet nectar galls, caused by the irritating 

 presence of plant lice, Pemphigus ulmicola (Fitch). 

 The lice live within the gall and secrete the sweet 

 nectar, which is greatly relished and much sought 

 after by bees and other sweet-loving insects. Nor 

 do we wonder, for it is very pleasant, as I well know 

 by actual test. Do you wrinkle your eye-brows? 

 Well, I have taken it right from the gall, while you 

 all have first allowed the bees to bear it in their 

 stomachs to the hive, and store it in their combs. 

 That is all the difference. 



Whether the oak galls of Colorado are similar 

 galls, resulting from the presence of lice, or wheth- 

 er they are like our more common oak galls, the re- 

 sult of irritation from larvcl hymenopterons, I am 

 unable to say, neither am I advised, whether the 

 nectar is a secreted product of the galls or of the 

 enclosed insects. 



The method of meal taking among the ants is not 

 unlike that often seen among the bees in our apia- 

 ries. Worker bees are often seen to extrude honey 

 from their mouth-tubes, which is sipped up by the 

 queen or other worker bees. In the same way this 

 vitalized nectar-pouch furnishes food to the other 

 ants of this anomalous family. 



A highly developed brain enables bees to con- 

 struct a wonderful wax receptacle for their honey. 

 Specialized individuals, with curiously developed 

 bodies, makes such extra construction unnecessary. 

 We can but wonder if it was not the lazy bummers 

 of this old time ant community, the indolent hang- 

 ers around the street corners of their rock home, 

 that were, as a result of this do-nothing habit, made 

 over into something useful, and so well suited to 

 their tastes. This may hint towards a possible use, 

 in the future, of human bummers. In fact our big 

 fat keepers of peanut stands are not widely re- 

 moved, even now. 



The worker ants are very solicitous about the 

 wtliare of their organized store-houses; for, if, as 

 often happens upon disturbance, one of the ant-bags 

 loses it hold and falls from the ceiling to the floor of 

 the formicary, a worker ant at once lays hold of its 

 fallen brother and drags it to its former position. 

 This must be a truly herculean task. It would be 

 like a man climbing a precipice, carrying a ton's 

 weight on his shoulder. 



The natives of New Mexico have evidently a keen 

 appreciation of the sweet things which nature has 

 put within their reach and are quick to appropiate 

 the same. They use these nectar-holding ants for 

 dessert at their banquets. To catch their method, 

 just remember how you eat grapes. You take them 

 between your thumb and finger, press them till the 

 skin breaks, when the delicious pulp slides down 

 your throat, much to your gratification. Now re- 

 place with your mind's eye the grape with one of 

 these live plump ant-bags, and your imagination 

 shows you just how the savage of New Mexico takes 

 his after-dinDcr delicacies. 



We have a doctor in our town, who is not 

 only learned and skillful, but lie is greatly- 

 devoted to the microscope, and has been of 

 no little benelit to the boys in their research- 

 es, giving his time and instruments freely at 



any time, for their advantage and improve- 

 ment. Well, this good friend of mine (I 

 trust he will pardon this) i'recpiently stops 

 me on the street and tells me of some new 

 achievement with the microscope, with such 

 a string of long, hard, "jawbreaking" words, 

 that I am sometimes almost tempted to 

 think he has learned them by heart, and 

 rattles them into my ears just on purpose to 

 astonish me at the extent and profundity of 

 his learning. While reading the above from 

 Prof. Cook s address, especially the forepart 

 of it, I was tempted to teel in the same way, 

 only I know the address was written foi» the 

 college boys, who, I presume, know all those 

 words, and I know too, I think, that neither 

 friend Cook nor the doctor would use words 

 on purpose to mystify. I hope all the rest 

 of you understand them, even if I do not. 



ANOMALIES IN SCIENCE. 



IS IT ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY THAT A QCEEN SHOULD 

 MEET THE DRONE, TO PRODUCE WORKER EGGS. 



lifmDITOR GLEANINGS: —In your remarks in 

 Jjjyi answer to the article of J. Chapman in March 

 — Gleanings, p. 118, you say, "My conjecture 

 that a queen might even produce worker bees with- 

 out fertilization is, if I am correct, still in accord- 

 ance with law," etc. Now, I have a case of that 

 kind. In the winter of '78 and '79, in early Jan., we 

 had a mild spell for a few days; snow was melting 

 and bees flying; so I concluded I would examine 

 some of the hives. The second one I opened had a 

 very nice Italian queen. The hive was an Ameri- 

 can, and you know they are side opening and you 

 have to take all frames out in front to get to a back 

 one. I hung the frames taken out before I came to 

 the one that had the queen on, on a rack, and before 

 I disposed of this one, I missed the queen, and could 

 not find her any more, although I looked the combs 

 over several times before I closed the hive. I wrote 

 inside "Look for Q." One of the combs had a patch 

 of young brood, larva? and eggs, about Hi or 2 in. in 

 diameter. After this the weather was cold, and I 

 did not look again before late Feb. or early March, 

 when I found that space of brood stuck fall all 

 around the edge with torn-down queen-cells, and a 

 young queen; the queen was small and dark, al- 

 though not black. In early April following, a friend 

 of mine from Posey county, this state, paid me a 

 visit. He keeps a few stands of bees and likes to 

 look at them, so I told him I would show him a 

 young unfertile queen ; but when we found her, she 

 was of good size and nice looking, and had consider- 

 able young brood and eggs. This was at least from 

 four to six weeks before any drones appeared. As 

 I did not at the time of the occurrence intend to 

 write an article about it, I did not make any notes, 

 consequently I can not give exact dates. This 

 queen produces hybrid bees, while the former pro- 

 duced Italians. If you have any remarks to make 

 on the above, let us have them. John HBBMBB. 

 Evansvillc, Ind., Mar. 17, 1880. 



Thanks, friend 11. It is possible that 

 some strong colony in your neighborhood, in 

 the woods perhaps, had drones, and that 

 your queen found a day warm enough to fly 

 out and meet them; but still I think, with 

 you, that it is quite improbable. Ho many 

 cases of this kind have come under my no- 

 tice, that it seems to me to indicate strongly 

 the possibility of the point I have suggested. 



