PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 191 



apartments, by natural means, resulting from the rare- 

 faction of the air by the heat of the hive, and the conse- 

 quent establishment of an interior and exterior current 

 a simple experiment will satisfy you that this cannot be. 

 Take a vessel of the size of a bee-hive, with a similar or 

 even somewhat larger aperture introduce a lighted ta- 

 per, and if the temperature be raised to more than 140, 

 it will go out in a short time. We must therefore admit, 

 as Iluber observes a , that the bees possess the astonish- 

 ing faculty of attracting the external air, and at the same 

 time of expelling that which has become corrupted by 

 their respiration. 



What would you say, should I tell you that the bees 

 upon this occasion have recourse to the same instru- 

 ment which ladies use to cool themselves when an apart- 

 ment is overheated? Yet it is strictly the case. By 

 means of their marginal hooks, they unite each pair of 

 wings into one plane slightly concave, thus acting upon 

 the air by a surface nearly as large as possible, and 

 forming for them a pair of very ample fans, which in 

 their vibrations describe an arch of 90. These vibra- 

 tions are so rapid as to render the wings almost invisi- 

 ble. When they are engaged in ventilation, the bees 

 by means of their feet and claws fix themselves as firmly 

 as possible to the place they stand upon. The first pair 

 of legs is stretched out before ; the second extended to 

 the right and left ; whilst the third, placed very near 

 each other, are perpendicular to the abdomen, so as to 

 give that part considerable elevation. 



Maraldi, and after him Reaumur, long ago noticed 

 this action of the bees ; but they attributed to it an ef- 

 * ii. 339, 



