BEE 



151 



BEE 



Honey is collected by means of the proboscis. To a com- 

 mon observer tbis instrument appears to be a single tube, 

 through which it is thought the honey is conveyed to the 

 stomach by suction ; but if we examine the proboscis 

 through a lens of very moderate power, we find that it is 

 composed of five very distinct parts, a central stalk and 

 four lateral ones, two on each side. The central part is 

 that which is principally used in collecting honey : this part 

 is not perforated, but is a flat cartilaginous substance, and 

 is used as a tongue in lapping up the honey, which is then 

 conveyed to the pharynx, and is afterwards disgorged into 

 the cells of the comb, part being used for the purpose of 

 feeding the young, and the remainder stored up for the 

 winter's consumption. 



Po/len is collected from the antherse of flowers, and is 

 carried on the outer surface of the tibiae, or middle joint of 

 the hinder leg : this part of the leg is very broad ; on one 

 side it is concave, and furnished with a series of strong 

 curved hairs on its margins, forming a natural basket admi- 

 rably adapted to the purpose for which it is used. This 

 substance mixed with honey forms the food of the Ian', 

 for which purpose alone it is collected. 



In many instances it is only by the bees travelling from 

 flower to (lower that the pollen or farina is carried from the 

 male to the female flowers, without which they would not 

 fructify. One species of bee would not be sufficient to fructify- 

 all the various sorts of flowers, were the bees of that species 

 ever so numerous, for it requires species of different sizes 

 and different constructions. ' M. Sprengel found, that not 

 only are insects indispensable in fructifying different species 

 of iris, but that some of them, as /. Xiphium, require the 

 agency of the larger humble bees, which alone are strong 

 enough to force their way beneath the stile flag ; and hence, 

 as these insects are not so common as many others, this 

 iris i? often barren, or bears imperfect seeds.' 



Prnpolii is a resinous unctuous substance, of a reddish 

 colour, and is collected from the buds of trees : it is not only 

 used in lining the cells of a new comb, but it is sometimes 

 kneaded with wax and used in rebuilding weak parts. It is 

 also used in stopping all the crevices in the interior of a 

 hive. The workers which arrive laden with this substance 

 are relieved of their burthen by others ; these in their turn 

 distribute it among many, who employ it for the purposes 

 above-mentioned. 



Nature has provided checks to prevent the too rapid in- 

 crease of the various species of insects. Among those of 

 the hive-bee, the hornet and wasp, and two or three species 

 of moths, commit great devastation. Wasps frequently take 

 possession of a hive, and after destroying, or causing their 

 weaker neighbours to desert the hive, consume all the honey 

 it contains, and sometimes even construct their own nests 

 in the hive. 



Acherontia, alropos, or the death's-head hawk-moth, which 

 is almost as large as our common bat, sometimes makes its 

 way into hives, and consumes much of the bees' stores. 

 This insect has the power of emitting a peculiar sound, not 

 unlike that of the queen-bee : this sound is supposed to 

 have the same effect (that of rendering the workers motion- 

 less) as that emitted by the queen. 



Two other moths commit great devastation in hives : 

 these are small species (Galleria alvearia, and G. melon- 

 el/a the honey-moth, and the honeycomb-moth), which, in 

 spite of the guards constantly kept at the entrance of hives, 

 gain admittance, and deposit their eggs in the combs. The 

 larvae hatched from these eggs form passages through the 

 comb in all directions, spinning a silken tube as they pro- 

 ceed, which it appears is too strong for the bees to destroy, 

 and of course they cannot sting the larvae. These larvae 

 generally oblige the bees to desert the hive after a short 

 time. 



In attending upon the young the labour of the workers 

 appears to be divided : a certain number always remain 

 brooding over the cells and feeding them, while others are 

 employed in collecting honey. It is these last that are the 

 principal secreters of wax, and are called wax-workers : the 

 f;>rmer are called nurse-bees. 



The Queen- bee is of a dark-brown colour: the head is 

 thickly furnished with yellow hairs, except on the fore- 

 head, where the hair is nearly black ; on the vertex there 

 are three small convex simple eyes, or stemmata. The an- 

 tenna? are yellow beneath and brown above, and composed 

 of twelve joints, the basal joint is more than one-third of the 

 whole length, the remaining joints are bent forwards, and 



at an angle withthe first. The thorax is covered with pale- 

 brown hairs. The abdomen is the shape of an elongated 

 cone and nearly smooth, exhibiting six distinct segments 

 above: the under side of the body and the base of each se<r- 

 ment above are of a paler colour than the remaining parts. 

 The legs are of a brownish yellow : the femora and tibioo of 

 the anterior, and the base of the femora of the posterior legs 

 are brown. All the claws of the tarsi are divided, the inner 

 division being much shorter than the outer one. The wings 

 are short and small in proportion, scarcely reaching more 

 than half the length of the abdomen. 



This sex is furnished with a bent sting ; in the neuter the 

 sting is straight ; the male has no sting. The queen- bee 

 resembles the worker in the shape of the head and thorax ; 

 but the great length of the abdomen and the paler colour 

 of the legs and antennas are its chief distinguishing cha- 

 racteristics. There is but one queen in a hive, who is treated 

 with the greatest attention by all the other bees. It might 

 be wondered how they can distinguish the queen from any 

 other bee, the interior of the hive being quite dark : in this 

 the antennae are their sole guide, for if the workers be pre- 

 vented touching her occasionally with the antennae they 

 proceed as if she were lost. This has been satisfactorily 

 proved by some ingenious experiments by Huher. If by 

 accident the queen be killed, or if she die, "her dead body is 

 still treated with attention, and, for a time, even preferred 

 to any other queen. 



The queen being accidentally or intentionally removed 

 from a hive, her absence is soon discovered and great dis- 

 order follows; but this is only temporary, 'for in a few hours 

 preparation is made to replace her loss. The larvae of 

 neuters from two to three days old are selected for this 

 purpose: the cells containing them are each enlarged by 

 sacrificing three adjoining cells, and in this space the 

 workers build a cylindrical tube which surrounds the young 

 larvae, which are then supplied with the same food as that 

 given to the ordinary royal larvae, and which is more pun- 

 gent than that given to common larvae. In about three 

 days time a perpendicular tube is constructed and joined to 

 the mouth of the cell just described; into this the larva 

 gradually makes its way, moving in a spiral direction. It 

 then remains two days in a perpendicular position, the head 

 being downwards, after which it turns to the pupa and then 

 to a queen. As several hatch nearly at the same time, the 

 strongest stings the others to death, and becomes ruler of 

 the hive. From this it is evident that the worker-bees 

 are imperfect females, requiring only a slight difference 

 of treatment in the larva state to become queens or fertile 

 females. 



If the queen be removed from a hive, and a stranger be 

 immediately introduced, she is surrounded and kept pri- 

 soner until she dies of hunger ; for the workers never sting 

 a queen. If, however, eighteen hours have elapsed since 

 the loss of the former queen, the stranger is better received, 

 for although she is at first surrounded, she is ultimately get 

 at liberty, and treated with all the usual attention ; but if 

 four-ami- twenty hours have elapsed before the strange queen 

 be introduced, she is at once admitted to the sovereignty of 

 the hive. 



While the queen remains in a hive, the introduction of a 

 strange queen will occasion a disturbance, somewhat similar 

 to that which takes place when two or three young queens 

 escape from their cells at the same time : both the stranger 

 and tho reigning queen are surrounded by the workers, and 

 the escape of either being thus prevented, they are soon 

 brought into contact. A battle ensues, which ends in the 

 death of one of them, and the other then becomes ruler of 

 the hive. 



The sole occupation of the queen is to lay eggs in the va- 

 rious cells prepared by the workers for that purpose, for she 

 takes no care of the young herself. Until she is about 

 eleven months old, the eggs laid are nearly all such as will 

 turn to workers, but at the completion of that period, which 

 most frequently happens in the spring time, the queen com- 

 mences the great laying of the eggs of males ; at this time 

 the queen will lay from two to three thousand eggs, some- 

 times from forty to fifty a day being laid during the months 

 of March and April. There is also another laying of tho 

 eggs of males in the autumn, but this is not so consider- 

 able. In the interval, the eggs of workers are almost exclu- 

 sively laid. 



There seems to ho a relation between the laying of the 

 eggs of males and the construction of royal cells, for the 



