THE HONEY-BEE. 



struggles to do so are often violent, and her dire 

 hostility to her own sex leads her, if she gets near 

 the cells, to destroy them instantly, whether in the 

 state of full insect or nymph. The strength of 

 this instinctive hate is even such that a young 

 queen no sooner leaves her own cell than she feels 

 its stirrings. According to Huber, there can only 

 be a single queen in a hive. The first thought of 

 a young queen is to kill her yet undeveloped 

 rivals. If two quit the cell at the same instant, 

 they rush into combat with the most headlong 

 fury. In all ordinary circumstances, two queens, 

 brought into contact, fight. But they might both 

 die in the contest, and the community be left 

 without a queen. Nature demands but one victim, 

 and she has arranged that but one victim shall 

 fall. Bees are only vulnerable in the belly ; and 

 Huber observed that, whenever two royal com- 

 batants were so locked together that they could 

 mutually plant their stings in the fatal part, their 

 instinct caused them to separate precipitately, 

 without harm on either side. The combat only 

 closes when one can get an advantage of position, 

 and kill its rival with safety. Again, the worker- 

 bees might interpose to prevent these mortal 

 combats. On the contrary, their instinct is to 

 prevent the queens from parting, and force on a 

 fatal issue. Alluding to one battle, Huber says 

 that it seemed as if 'the bees anticipated the 

 combat in which these queens were about to 

 engage, and were impatient to behold the issue of 

 it, for they retained their prisoners only when 

 they appeared to withdraw from each other ; and 

 if one less restrained seemed desirous of approach- 

 ing her rival, all the bees forming the clusters 

 gave way, to allow her full liberty for the attack ; 

 then, if the queens testified a disposition to flee, 

 they returned to inclose them.' 



Another remarkable provision for insuring the 

 existence of but one queen in a hive is beheld in 

 the peculiar mode in which the royal larvae spin 

 their cocoons. Other bees spin perfectly close 

 cases ; the queen-larvae spin cocoons which en- 

 velop only the head, thorax, and first ring of the 

 abdomen, leaving a part open behind. Huber 

 thus explains this minute but important peculi- 

 arity : ' Of several royal nymphs in a hive, the 

 first transformed attacks the rest, and stings them 

 to death. But were these nymphs enveloped in a 

 complete cocoon, she could not accomplish it 

 Why? Because the silk is of so close a texture 

 that the sting could not penetrate, or if it did, the 

 barbs would be retained by the meshes of the 

 cocoon, and the queen, unable to retract it, would 

 become the victim of her own fury. Thus, that 

 the queen might destroy her rivals, it was neces- 

 sary the last rings of the body should remain 

 uncovered ; therefore, the royal nymphs must only 

 form imperfect cocoons. Hitherto philosophers 

 have claimed our admiration of nature in her care 

 of preserving and multiplying the species. But 

 from the facts I relate, we must now admire her 

 precautions in exposing certain individuals to a 

 mortal hazard.' 



Loss and Making of a Queen. 



If bees, by death or artificial means, are 

 deprived of their queen, the event has a marked 

 influence in the hive. In such a case, the follow- 

 ing results ensue, according to Huber: Bees do 

 not immediately observe the removal of their 



queen ; their labours are uninterrupted ; they 

 watch over the young, and perform all their ordi- 

 nary occupations. But in a few hours, agitation 

 ensues ; all appears a scene of tumult in the hive. 

 A singular humming is heard ; the bees desert 

 their young, and rush over the surface of the 

 combs with a delirious impetuosity. Then they 

 discover their queen is no longer among them. 

 But how do they become sensible of it? How do 

 the bees on the surface of the comb discover that 

 the queen is not on the next comb? It is sup- 

 posed that the alarming intelligence of the loss 

 is communicated by the strokes on the antennae, 

 which bees are uniformly observed to give to each 

 other at these times. The insects then appear to 

 seek for their lost queen, some rushing hurriedly 

 out to make the search abroad. At the end of five 

 hours, the commotion greatly ceases, and an instinc- 

 tive recourse to the means of supplying the vacancy 

 takes place. If they have royal larvae, they turn 

 their whole attention to them. If they have only 

 the larvae of working-bees, they immediately select 

 two or three of them, pull down the neighbouring 

 cells, at the cost of the lives of the young within 

 them, and construct a royal cell around each of the 

 selected larvae. If they have no larvae at all on 

 the loss of their queen, still they build several 

 royal cells. If a stranger queen be introduced in 

 such a state of things, within twelve hours after 

 the loss of their own sovereign, the new-comer is 

 treated as an intruder, and the bees surround her 

 so closely that she commonly dies from privation 

 of air. If the stranger be introduced within 

 eighteen hours, they also surround her, but leave 

 her sooner. To shew that they possess memory, 

 it is only necessary now to re-introduce their own 

 queen, when they will shew every symptom of 

 recognition and joy. But their memory is short- 

 lived ; for, if the stranger be not introduced till 

 twenty-four hours elapse, she receives a treatment 

 very different from that experienced at an earlier 

 period. 'I introduced,' says Huber, 'a fertile 

 queen, eleven months old, into a glass hive. The 

 bees were twenty-four hours deprived of their 

 queen, and had already begun the construction of 

 twelve royal cells. Immediately on placing this 

 female stranger on the comb, the workers near her 

 touched her with their antennae, and passing their 

 trunks over every part of her body, they gave her 

 honey. Then these gave place to others that 

 treated her exactly in the same manner. All 

 vibrated their wings at once, and ranged them- 

 selves in a circle around their sovereign. Hence 

 resulted a kind of agitation, which gradually com- 

 municated to the workers situated on the same 

 surface of the comb, and induced them to come 

 and reconnoitre, in their turn, what was going on. 

 They soon arrived ; and having broken through the 

 circle formed by the first, approached the queen, 

 touched her with the antennae, and gave her honey. 

 After this little ceremony they retired, and, placing 

 themselves behind the others, enlarged the circle 

 There they vibrated their wings, and buzzed with- 

 out tumult or disorder, and as if experiencing some 

 very agreeable sensation. The queen had not yet 

 left the place where I had put her, but in a quarter 

 of an hour she began to move. The bees, far from 

 opposing her, opened the circle at that part to 

 which she turned, followed her, and formed a 

 guard around. She was oppressed with the neces- 

 sity of laying, and dropped her eggs, Fmally, 



679 



