364 



BEE. 



of the females and workers having only twelve arti- 

 culations) ; the head is more rounded, with the eyes 

 larger, and meeting behind ; their jaws are smaller 

 and very hairy; and the basal joint of the posterior 

 tarsi has neither pollen plate nor brush. They make 

 a much greater noise in their flight than the others, 

 and at the extremity of the body two small corneous 

 appendages are to be observed of a yellow colour, 

 which, with some other internal organs, constitute the 

 sexual apparatus. 



Drone Bee. \*> 



- 



In addition to these three kind of individuals, it is 

 to be observed, that there appear to be two sorts of 

 females, namely, the large and small. Reaumur, how- 

 ever, attributes this difference of size to the state of 

 the eggs in the body. There are likewise two de- 

 scriptions of males, one not larger than the workers, 

 and supposed to be produced from a male egg laid in 

 a worker's cell, and the other much larger, above 

 described. Moreover, there are, according to M. 

 Huber, two sorts of workers ; the first, which he calls 

 cirieres, wax-makers, being charged with the collecting 

 of food and secretion of materials for the building of 

 the nest ; and the second, which he calls nourrices, or 

 nurses, smaller and more weakly, whose cares are 

 directed to the feeding of the young and the domestic 

 concerns of the nest*. Huber also noticed another 

 kind of bees, which he terms black bees, and which 

 appear to be only casual inmates of the hive, from 

 which they are always expelled, and often killed by 

 the workers, with which, however, except in having 

 the head and thorax of a darker colour, they agree 

 both in their external appearance and internal struc- 

 ture, having, like the workers, perfect ovaries, 

 although not furnished with eggs. Messrs. Kirby 

 and Spence threw out the hint that those black bees 

 may be superannuated workers, which have lost some 

 of the hairs from off their bodies, and which, being 

 incapable of contributing to the labours of the nest, 

 are banished by the younger members. 



Such are the inhabitants of the hive the chief 

 products of which are bees-wax and honey. The 

 former is secreted by the worker-bees from a peculiar 

 apparatus on the underside of the belly, as occasion 

 requires f, and is employed for constructing the 



* Much difference of opinion has prevailed amongst naturalists 

 as to the origin of wax, it having been generally supposed that 

 the yellow matter, which in fact is the farina of flowers, and 

 which is collected upon the thighs of bees, was its prime consti- 

 tuent. More recent investigations have, however, pretty clearly 

 demonstrated, that wax, by the organic intervention of bees, is 

 produced from honey having been repeatedly secreted when the 

 bees have been confined in rooms, where they could not possibly 

 obtain the least particle of farina, which has been termed bee- 

 bread, or the ambrosia of the hive, and which having been col- 

 lected by the workers, is deposited by them in the cells. The wax 

 is secreted by a singular series of organs between the abdominal 

 scales, Mr. John Hunter having detected the genuine reservoir 

 of wax under the bee's belly. 



t It is not improbable that the assertion of Father Tanoya, 

 mentioned by Monticelli, that in every hive there are three sorts 

 of bees independent of each other, namely, male and female 

 drones, male and female monarchs, and male and female 

 workers, originated in these several kinds of bees ; but that each 

 construct their own nests, as he asserts, is certainly unfounded 

 infftct. 



combs in which the family-provision and the young 

 brood are deposited. These combs are boiled in 

 water, after the honey is extracted, until melted ; the 

 wax is then separated from the water, and being re- 

 melted, it is poured into moulds, to form the bees- 

 wax sold in our shops. It has been said that there 

 is hardly enough of this article produced in England 

 to answer the demand for lip-salve alone, the greater 

 portion employed being annually imported from the 

 Baltic, the Levant, the Barbary coast, and North 

 America. Humboldt informs us that not less than 

 42,670 arobas of wax, worth upwards of 130,0007. 

 were exported from the island of Cuba in a single 

 year. This product is for the most part obtained 

 from the common hive bees ; a quantity by no means 

 inconsiderable is, however, procured from various 

 species of wild bees. 



Honey is obtained by the bees from the nectaries 

 of flowers, which, as is well known, are constantly 

 secreting a sweet nectarial fluid. This is sucked up 

 by the tongue of the insect ; a portion of it is con- 

 sumed at once for its support, but the majority of the 

 supply, although taken into the stomach of the bee, 

 is again regurgitated and poured into the cells of the 

 hive for the food of the grubs and the use of the 

 community during winter. These cells are placed 

 in the most inaccessible parts of the hive, and are 

 closed with wa'xen lids, but the honey destined for 

 the use of the nurses, workers, and drones, is depo- 

 sited in unclosed cells. Some difference seems to 

 exist whether the honey, whilst retained in the 

 stomach of the bee, does not undergo some change, and 

 this idea is strengthened by Reaumur's experiment, 

 from which he obtained honey from the nests of bees 

 fed upon sugar. Moreover, in each honey-cell there 

 is a cream-like layer or covering of a thicker con- 

 sistence than the honey itself. This layer is perfo- 

 rated by the bee, when it deposits its honey in the 

 cell, through a hole made by the fore-legs, and which 

 is closed before the bee flies away. The quality 

 and taste of honey depend, therefore, upon the 

 plants frequented by the bees ; thus, the finest 

 flavoured and most delicate honey is collected from 

 aromatic plants, and has been stored in clean and 

 new cells, for which reason, and not because it is ela- 

 borated by a fresh swarm of bees, it is termed virgin 

 honey. The peculiar taste of the fine Narbonne 

 honey has been attempted to be imitated by adding 

 an infusion of rosemary. Hence it is advisable to 

 have large patches of such plants as borage, viper's 

 bugloss, mignonette, lemon thyme, and sage, in the 

 neighbourhood of bee-hives. Lime trees, furze, heath, 

 and clover, are also desirable auxiliaries. 



Honey, however, occasionally has been found to 

 have acted like poison, a circumstance probably 

 owing to the bees having extracted it from poison- 

 ous plants. Many of the ancient writers contain 

 facts on this subject, and in particular Xenophon has 

 recorded in his Memorabilia that a number of 

 Greek soldiers, during the celebrated retreat of the 

 ten thousand, were violently affected by honey, which 

 they had eaten near Trebizond. Tournefort, when 

 travelling in Asia, made some inquiries upon the 

 subject, and discovered a shrub growing in the neigh- 

 bourhood of that place, which is well known to 

 produce similar effects. He says, " There is a kind 

 of rhododendrons about Trebizond, whose flowers 

 the bee feeds upon, and the honey thence drives 

 people mad." Moore has employed this circumstance, 



