374 



MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE. 



[Insects. 



youne;, carefully watchinir the t^ueen's cells, and j 

 working at the outside by removing the wax from j| 

 the suit'ace. It is said that the wax is removed in : 

 order to facilitate the exit of the young queen ; but | 

 although the removal of it may thus be of service, , 

 we are not inclined to think it is done for that pur- j 

 pose." i^ 



When a swarm (juits a hive, it generally clusters |[ 

 on a tree or bush in the neiiflibourhood, and if it be 1, 

 not soon secured it takes flight, and proceeds in 

 search of some convenient abode. In Palestine ; 

 fissures in the rocks were much freiiuented by bees, jj 

 as are the caves of Salsette and Elephanta at the 

 present day. 



The custom of making a useless noise by beating |. 

 iron or sounding instruments in order to induce i! 

 swarms to settle, is of great antiquity. Virgil says— 



"Tinnituiqae da, et Mitiij qn«ta cymbala circum." 



Geury. iv,, line 6-1. 



The sole occupation of the female, or queen-bee, 

 is to lay eggs in the various cells prepared by the 

 workers for that purpose ; she takes no care of the 

 young herself. Until she is about eleven months 

 old, the eggs laid are all or nearly all those of 

 workers; subsequently those of the males are depo- 

 sited, generally in the spring. The egg of the bee 

 is about the twelfth of an inch long, of a cylindrical 

 form with rounded ends. When the larva emerges 

 from the egg, it is immediately supplied with food 

 by the nurse-bees. It maybe now seen lying in a 

 curved position at the bottom of the cell, where it 

 continues to grow until it has completely filled up 

 the space. When it is full grown, it lies horizontally 

 with its head towards the entrance. The food with 

 which the larva is supplied is a mixture of farina, 

 honey, and water, which is converted into a whitish 

 jelly by elaboration in the stomachs of the nurse-bees. 

 The proportions of farina and honey vary according 

 to the age of the young. Mr. Waterhouse says, 

 "We believe that the food is not given directly to 

 the larva, but disgorged into the cell, so that the 

 insect is surrounded with it. But when the larva is 

 nearly full grown, its food is sweeter (probably con- 

 taining a greater proportion of honey), and is applied 

 by the nurse-bees to its mouth, somewhat in the 

 manner of a bird feeding its young." Fig. 3626 

 represents — a, the egg of the bee ; b, the larva ; c, 

 the pupa of the worker-bee ; d, the head of the 

 larva magnified. 



Fig. 3627 represents three hive-bees — a, the male, 

 or drone; h, the neuter, or worker; c, the queen- 

 bee. The lines denote the natural length of each. 

 The neuters are of two kinds, small nurse-bees, and 

 larger wax-workers ; the nuise-bees are also called 

 sculpturers. 



Dividing their labours then, they construct combs, 

 watch and nurse the young, store up honey and bee- 

 bread, make propolis to finish and strengthen the 

 cells, and guard the queen, whose sole duty is the 

 deposition of her eggs in the cells. 



With respect to the males, or drones, the purpose 

 of their existence accomplished, they are doomed 

 to death. Produced in April or May, they live till 

 July or August, when the workers commence a 

 general massacre, which continues for two or three 

 days. The motive which actuates the worker-bees 

 in this entire destruction of the males has often been 

 discussed, but is not understood ; for it appears that 

 in hives deprived of a queen they remain unmo- 

 lested, as they do also in the rare cases in which the 

 queen lays only male eggs.* 



Fig. 3628 represents a swarm of bees on the 

 branch of a laburnum. 



Fig. 3629 represents a swarm of forty thousand 

 bees on the branch of a fig-tree, with Reaumur's 

 apparatus for weighing them and computing their 

 number. We may now notice the products of these 

 industrious tribes. 



Honey is the nectar of flowers lapped out of the 

 nectary by the tongue, and conveyed to the crop or 

 honey-bag ; here it undergoes but little alteration, 

 and is transferred or disgorged into the cells des- 

 tined to receive it. Of these some are store-cells, 

 some are filled for daily use. A single cell will 

 contain the contents of many honey-bags, and 

 though the cell is horizontal the honey will not 

 ninout, for a thick cream rises and forms a glutinous 

 film, obliquely placed, keeping in the treasure. 

 The store-cells when filled are covered with a waxed 

 lid. 



With respect to bee-bread, we may state that 

 while the bee is busy in extracting the sweets of 

 the flowers, it becomes covered with the pollen of 

 the anthers ; this pollen it wipes off from its body 

 with the brushes of its legs, collects every particle 

 together, and kneads it into two little masses, which 

 are placed each in a sort of basket on the broad 



* A queen whose pairing it retarded beyond the 28th day of 

 tier whole existence, lays only male eggs ; and is useless. In ordinary 

 rases, she first lays neater and female egfjs. When pairing at 

 the proper age takes place late in the season, the queen does not 

 begin to lay till spring; she lays about two bundled per day, or 

 twelve thousand (a (warm) in two montha. 



surface of the tibia, or middle joint of the leg, 

 where a series of elastic hairs over-arches a con- 

 cavity, and acls as a sort of lid or covering. Thus 

 burdened, off the insect flies to the hive ; first the 

 honey is safely lodged, then the bee-bread, or kneaded 

 pollen, is disposed of as circumstances may require ; 

 sometimes it is eaten by several bees, called by a 

 peculiar sort of hum to their repast, and if more is 

 collected than required for present use, it is depo- 

 sited in some of the empty cells, to serve as future 

 provision. Kig. 3630 shows the structure of the 

 hind-legs of the bee, magnified. 



Wax is a peculiar secretion in little pockets or 

 cells beneath the scales of the abdomen. Of these 

 wax-pockets there are generally four on each side, 

 at the base of each intermediate segment, and con- 

 cealed by the overlapping ol the preceding segment. 

 They are found only in the muter bees, not in the 

 males or queens. Fig. 3631 shows the under surface 

 of a neuter bee, with the position of the scales of 

 wax. Fig. 3632 shows the abdomen of the queen- 

 bee. 



It appears that it is from honey that the wax, 

 by some internal process, is elaborated, as the wax- 

 workers retain the honey when wax is required 

 which they would otherwise disgorge into the cells. 

 The wax oozes out between the abdominal rings, 

 in the form of little laminae ; it is then worked with 

 the mouth, and kneaded with saliva that it may 

 acquire the requisite degree of ductility for the 

 construction of the comb, which is finished with 

 propolis. 



Propolis is a glutinous or gummy resinous matter, 

 procured from the buds of various trees, as the Taca- 

 mahaca (Populus balsamifera), the birch, &c. This 

 gum the bees draw out with the mouth, prepare it, 

 and having loaded the basket of each hind-leg, 

 return to the hive. It is not only employed in 

 varnishing the cells of the combs, but for stopping 

 up crevices, for coating the sticks which support 

 the combs, and for mixing with wax, and rebuilding 

 weak parts. Often it is spread over the hive dome 

 interiorly. It is of wax then and propolis that 

 the combs of the bee, pierced with hexagonal cells 

 on both sides, are formed. Fig. 3633 represents 

 part of a honey-comb, with bees at work : — 



The construction of a comb is one of the difS- 

 culties which naturalists have long laboured to ex- 

 plain, and various are the theories which have been 

 entertained as to the mode in which this beautiful 

 piece of workmanship is accomplished. In our own 

 opinion, the most successful attempt is that of Mr. 

 Waterhouse, whose article in the ' Penny Cyclopasdia' 

 merits the utmost attention. We shall follow his 

 account, with a few omissions : — 



To work in circles or segments of circles appears 

 most compatible with animal mechanism acted upon 

 by instinct, for we observe that the works of almost 

 ail insects (perhaps we may say almost all animals) 

 proceed in circles or segments of circles. The cells 

 of almost all the various species of bees are of this 

 construction, and we find that, under peculiar 

 circumstances, those of the hive-bee are so likewise, 

 as ill the case of the queen's cell, and in some of 

 those cells close to it, and sometimes in other parts 

 of the comb, in cases where an accident has been 

 repaired. 



If some hive-bees could be made to vpork in a 

 large solid mass of wax, the first cell formed would 

 most probably be cylindrical, with a hollow circular 

 bottom ; this would also be the form of the follow- 

 ing cells, unle.ss they came in contact with each 

 other ; and in this case, supposing the circum- 

 ferences of three cylinders were to touch, the bees 

 working in each of these cylinders would cut away 

 the wax at a, a, a (Fig. 3634). But supposing the 

 wax-block were excavated on one of its sides, into 

 the greatest number of equal-sized cylinders that it 

 would admit of, it would then follow that each cy- 

 linder would be surrounded by six others, this being 

 the only number of equal-sized circles which may 

 be placed round one of the same magnitude : by the 

 same rule of removing the wax frcm the interstices, 

 these cylinders would become hexagons. Again, 

 supposing this block to be a flat mass of equal 

 thickness in all parts (the ordinary thickness of a 

 comb), this block being cut into cylinders of equal 

 diameter on both sides, and the base of each cylinder 

 being exactly over parts of three opposing ones, 

 when the wax is cut .away at the interstices, as at 

 the sides, it follows that the bottoms of the cells 

 will be each composed of three equal rhombus- 

 shaped pieces. (Fig. 3635.) Hence we have cells 

 exactly like those of the hive-bee, but not con- 

 structed in the ordinary way, though upon such 

 principles as analogy points out (a circular 

 form being the basis of the work'), and in such 

 a way as we have observed they do occasionally 

 proceed. 



• If we allow that the basis of the work of the hive-bee be circular, 

 the royal cell forms no exception to the general rule, so far as the 

 principle of ita eonstraction la concerned. 



Let US now examine the construction of the comb 

 in its usual way of proceeding : — 



The first operation is the formation of wax. which 

 is secreted by the insect at the time of building the 

 combs. For this purpose the wax-workers suspend 

 themselves in festoons from the top of the hive. 

 Those which first reach the top fix themselves by 

 the claws of the fore-legs to the roof, and are fol- 

 lowed by others which attach themselves to them, 

 until an inverted cone or festoon of bees is formed, 

 each end of which is attached to the roof of the 

 hive. Before the commencement of the new comb, 

 the interior of a hive presents a series of festoons of 

 this description, intersecting each other in all di- 

 rections, the bees remaining in perfect repose. (See 

 Fig. 3636, a festoon of wax-workers. Fig. 3637 the 

 outline formed by the festoon filled up by a crowd 

 of workers.) 



At this time the wax is secreted, and makes its 

 appearance in little scales which exude between 

 the segments on the under side of the abdomen, 

 eight scales being visible in each bee. The wax 

 being secreted, one of the bees commences the 

 comb; having detached itself from the festoon, it 

 makes its way to the roof of the hive, and alter 

 clearing a space by driving away the other bees, it 

 detaches one of the scales from the abdomen by 

 means of its hinder legs: this is then conveyed by 

 the fore-legs to the mouth, where it is masticated, 

 and impregnated with a fiotliy liquid by the tongue, 

 in which process it obtains a whiteness and opacity 

 which it did not before possess. The particles of 

 wax are then applied to the roof of the hive. 

 Another scale undergoes the same process, and is 

 attached to the first. The bee thus continues la- 

 bouring until all its scales are disposed of ; it then 

 quits its situation, and is followed by another bee, 

 which proceeds with its scales in the work already 

 begun, depositing the wax in a straight line with 

 the former deposition. The same operation is 

 performed by many other bees, until a considerable 

 block is deposited. This block is generally about 

 five or six lines long, the height two lines, and the 

 thickness half a line ; and it is upon this that the 

 formation of the cells commences. (See 3638, a bee 

 laying the foundation of its first cell.) 



We have seen that the foundation of the block is 

 the work of one bee, so likewise is the commence- 

 ment of the cells ; — the former is the work of what 

 is called the wax-workers, which, we are informed 

 by Huber, do not possess the power of sculpturing 

 the cells : the cells are made by the sculpturer- 

 bees, who are smaller than the wax-workers. No 

 sooner is the block large enough to admit a sculp- 

 terer-bee between the wax-workers, than the exca- 

 vation commences. There seems to be an instinctive 

 desire to perform the work of excavation wherever 

 there is room, even though there may not be suflS- 

 cient to form a perfect cell ; for we never observe a 

 solid piece of wax in any part of a comb. On the 

 contrary, if by any accident there has been space 

 unoccupied by cells, we find that the wax has 

 been excavated at that part as much as was practi- 

 cable] 



The bee, impelled by instinct to deposit wax and 

 to excavate, and also guided by an acute sense of 

 feeling in the antennse (probably through the 

 elasticity of the wax), as to the degree to which 

 the excavation should proceed, forms the comb ; 

 and in so doing it seems to act not from choice, 

 but from a necessity imposed upon it by two an- 

 tagonist principles, one causing it to deposit and 

 excavate wax, and the other acting through the 

 antennae, and limiting the degree of excavation. 

 (See Fig. 3639, showing the front side and back 

 views in which the excavations for the cells are 

 made.) 



It is to this desire for performing the work of 

 excavation that we attribute the small excavations 

 about the royal cells, which are said to be for the 

 purpose of facilitating the exit of the young queen. 

 If the wax were removed for that purpose we do not 

 see why the operation should not be confined to that 

 part through which she makes her escape. On the 

 other hand, if from the wax of the royal cells being 

 thicker than it is in other parts of the comb, the 

 workers are induced to make excavations, and 

 desist only upon the thickness being reduced to 

 that of the ordinary partitions, it follows that it will 

 at last become uniformly thin, as described by 

 Huber ; the reason here given differs from Hiiber's, 

 but we think it more in accordance with the habits 

 and economy of the animal. 



In forming the cells, a hollow is first excavated 

 on one side of the wax-block ; this excavation is 

 rather less than the width of a cell, and is imme- 

 diately followed by two of a similar description on 

 the opposite side of the block. The particles of 

 wax removed in excavation are kneaded by the 

 jaws of the bee and deposited on the edges of the 

 intended cells; the two latter exavations i,i, b. 

 Fig. 3639) are necessarily on each side of the first, 

 though close to it. In placing the two last-men- 



