THE BEE. 



515 



offers is the trunk, which serves to extract the 

 honey from flowers. It is not formed, like 

 that of other flies, in the manner of a tube, by 

 which the fluid is to be sucked up ; but like a 

 besom to sweep, or a tongue to lick it away. 



continent, accordingly, Feburier tells us, they have re- 

 ceived the name of Hatchers. There are occasionally 

 found drones of a small size in hives where the impreg- 

 nation of the Queen has been retarded. In such circum- 

 stances, her instinct is so impaired, that she lays her eggs 

 indiscriminately in all kinds of cells; those of males 

 sometimes in the cells of workers. The consequence is, 

 that these males, when hatched, are diminutive in size, 

 having been cramped in their growth by the smallness of 

 their birth-place. 



The life of this vir gregis is extremely short ; the 

 favoured lover perishes soon after his union with the 

 female, and thus anticipates, though only by a short pe- 

 riod, the destruction which awaits his race. So early 

 as the beginning of August, the bees, as if wishing to 

 apply " the preventive check'' to a superabundant idle 

 population, begin to manifest deadly intentions towards 

 them; and the unfortunate victims, as if to derive con- 

 solation from one another's society, or perhaps driven 

 together by their irascible superiors, may be seen about 

 that period clustering closely together in some corner of 

 the combs, where they remain without motion, and with- 

 out once venturing to approach the provision-cells. Thus 

 weakened by hunger and captivity, and disqualified for 

 resistance by the want of a sting, they fall an easy prey 

 to their merciless assailants ; and a scene of carnage 

 takes place which it is difficult to describe. The un- 

 happy wretches are seen driven to the bottom of the hive 

 pursued with such fury, that, in spite of their strength, 

 which is greatly superior to that of their persecutors, and 

 which enables them to drag two or three of their assail- 

 ants along the board, and even to fly off with them, they 

 are unable to avoid the mortal thrust of their formidable 

 stings, and expire instantaneously from the effects of the 

 poison. But death overtakes them in various forms ; 

 for their enemies sometimes seize them by the wings, 

 and with their strong mandibles gnaw them at the roots, 

 and disable them from flying. They may then be seen 

 in numbers crawling on the ground, where they perish 

 from the cold, or are trampled under foot, and devoured 

 by birds or frogs. Such as escape for a while, may be 

 seen flying from destruction, lighting on the shrubs and 

 flowers to enjoy a moment's respite from their terrors ; 

 or buzzing about our windows, or wandering about from 

 hive to hive, into one of which they no sooner enter 

 than certain death awaits them. Nay, so bitter is the 

 fury of their tormentors, that, not satisfied with de- 

 stroying these unhappy beings themselves, they tear 

 from the cells such of the doomed race as are yet in the 

 state of larvae, and sucking from their bodies, with in. 

 stinctive economy, the fluids they contain, cast the life- 

 less remains out of the hive. There are cases, however, 

 in which this destruction of males does not take place. 

 " In hives that have lost their Queen," says Huber, " the 

 males are spared ; and, while a savage massacre rages 

 in other hives, they here find an asylum. They are 

 tolerated and fed, and many are seen even in the middle 

 of January." The cause of this may perhaps be looked 

 for in the additional heat which they would generate in 

 winter ; or perhaps they may be preserved for the pur- 

 pose of pairing with a new Queen. 



The impregnation of the Queen-bee is a branch o: 

 Natural History which has given rise to more discussion 

 than almost any other fact, connected with the nature ol 

 the insect. And indeed the difficulty, we might almost 

 say impossibility of obtaining any thing like ocular evi- 

 dence on the subject, will readily account for the diver- 

 sity of opinion that has hitherto prevailed. And we 



The animal is furnished also with teeth, which 

 serve it in making wax. This substance is 

 gathered from flowers, like honey ; it consists 

 jf that dust or farina which contributes to the 

 ecundation of plants, and is moulded into wax 



should hope that this difficulty alone, and not any precon- 



eived theory or unreasonable prejudice, is the cause of 



that determined pertinacity with which the discoveries 



and conclusions of Huber, on this subject, are still in 



some instances rejected. That justly celebrated natu- 



alist, instituted a set of experiments on the subject of 



the Queen's impregnation, the result of which leads to the 



conclusion that it takes place in the air. 



There is a fact connected with this part of the natural 

 history of the mother-bee which involves great difficul- 

 ties. The fact itself was discovered by Huber, but its 

 cause he was unable to develope, and no succeeding 

 naturalist has been able to free it from the obscurity in 

 which he has left it, we mean the effects of retarded im- 

 pregnation. These effects are such as we could hardly 

 credit, were not the fact confirmed by numerous experi- 

 ments. If impregnation be delayed longer than twenty 

 days from the Queen's birth, the consequence is, that 

 none but male eggs are laid, even during the whole of 

 the Queen's life. This phenomenon has baffled every 

 attempt to explain its cause. " There are mysteries," 

 observes Feburier, " in the operations of nature, both in 

 reference to the rational and irrational creation, which 

 will, probably, for ever remain inscrutable to man." In 

 the natural state of things, that is, when fecundation has 

 not been postponed, the Queen lays the eggs of workers 

 in forty-six hours after her union with the male, and 

 continues for the subsequent eleven months to produce 

 these alone, and it is only after this period that a consi- 

 derable laying of the eggs of drones commences. These 

 male eggs require eleven months to attain to maturity, 

 but, under the effects of retardation, they are matured in 

 forty-six hours. The eggs of workers, which, in the 

 usual state of things, would have been laid first, never 

 come to light; their vitality has been destroyed by some 

 vitiation which has taken place, and the cause of which 

 has not yet been discovered. Huber, in reasoning on 

 the subject, and contemplating the difficulty attending 

 it, declares it to be fl an abyss in which he is lost." 

 There is another circumstance which he has not adverted 

 to, and which seems to increase these difficulties. He 

 asserts that before a Queen commences her great laying 

 of male-eggs, she must be eleven months old. But 

 he acknowledges that " a Queen hatched in spring, 

 will perhaps lay fifty or sixty eggs of drones in whole, 

 during the course of the ensuing summer." We know 

 this to be true from our own experience ; and also as 

 the usual consequence of this appearance of male-eggs, 

 that the bees commence building royal cells ; the Queen 

 lays in them, and swarming takes place. Now this par- 

 tial laying of drone-eggs takes place only in the case of 

 very early swarms ; and if the weather be unfavourable, 

 it does not happen even in them. But if in the natural 

 state, the space of eleven months be necessary for the 

 male-eggs to acquire that degree of increment they must 

 have attained when laid, how are we to explain the fact 

 of two or three score of these male-eggs making their 

 appearance before the mother-bee is six weeks old ? 

 Leaving this matter in the obscurity which we cannot 

 dispel, we have only further to observe, that in every 

 case of retarded impregnation the instinct of the Queen 

 appears to be greatly impaired. She lays her eggs indis- 

 criminately in drone and worker cells ; now and then 

 even in royal cells ; and does not evince that jealousy 

 and irritable temperament towards her rivals, which, in 

 the natural state, characterize the Queen. Naturalist's 

 Library. Entomology. Vol. vi. Bees, Edinburgh t 

 1840. 



