APIS. 329 



of the bee parasites of the solitary kinds ; and where they 

 cannot individually avert it, they obtain collateral aid 

 from others of their staff. The next class is the atten- 

 dants upon the queen : these vary in number from twelve 

 to twenty ; they invariably accompany her wherever she 

 proceeds throughout the hive, for the purpose of laying 

 her eggs; and whether their custom gave rise to the 

 etiquette which attends human royalty, that a subject 

 may never turn the back upon the sovereign, these at- 

 tendant bees surround her with the head always turned 

 towards her, and seem to caress her with their antennae 

 and pay her every kind of deferential homage, those in 

 front moving backwards as she advances, and those on 

 each side, laterally, so that they ever face her; and as 

 they tire others succeed them in their duties. Another 

 set fulfil the office of keeping the hive thoroughly clean, 

 for the transit of such large numbers will inevitably 

 collect occasional dirt, as will the drift of the wind at the 

 entrance of the hive and the action of the ventilators 

 themselves. Their duty it is also to remove any extra- 

 neous organic body that has forcibly entered and which 

 may have succumbed to the vindictiveness of the bees. 

 Where they are not strong enough, even collectively, to 

 effect the removal, as in the case of a mouse or anything 

 else as large or larger, they then call to their aid the 

 wax workers and the repairers ; these enclose the ob- 

 noxious body, which they have the judgment to know 

 will become dangerous from putrefaction, to aid in its 

 prevention, by a cerement of wax or propolis, which pre- 

 vents any offensive exhalation, and thus secures the 

 wholesomeness of the hive. 



Here is completed, with the enumeration of those 

 which successively repose from their toil, the several 

 labours of the community which inhabits the hive. 



