1873.] 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



279 



and bequeath to their descendants their strength. 

 When subjected to new and unfavorable con- 

 ditions only such as are adapted or can adapt 

 themselves to them survive ; and those that can 

 survive, in a little while take on new character- 

 istics, new habits and instincts. If this were 

 not the case the human family could not have 

 peopled the earth, and the honey bee would still 

 be confined to the perpetual summer of the 

 tropics. 



We have seen that it was perhaps as true of 

 the primitive bee as of man, that there was but a 

 single pair, with power of increasing in that 

 condition. From that we infer that it was placed 

 in the tropics, and as there was no necessity 

 for a hive, like man it had no house. We have 

 concluded that it did not store honey, as there 

 was no winter to provide for, and for the same 

 reason they did not live in large communities 

 and the imperfect female, the worker, did not 

 exist. 



As they increased and spread they were soon 

 brought in contact with the new conditions of 

 climate and food. Now, had tlie laws of their 

 being been so rigid as to allow of no change, 

 these would have been a barrier to their further 

 progress But when they encountered frost that 

 destroyed the flowers, and chilled them, none 

 survived but those that had a colony large 

 enough to form a cluster, and food enough to 

 live on till it passed, and even those were killed 

 that did not happen to have their nest in shel- 

 tered places.* The result was that the social 

 instinct was developed, and also the storing in- 

 stinct, and the habit of seeking cavities in trees 

 and rocks for a home, and in proportion as 

 these instincts were increased they spread furth- 

 er into the temperate zones. 



The female bees, that had until now not only 

 the power to lay eggs, but to gather the food 

 and nurse the young, soon felt the influence of 

 the new order of things. Nature compelled 

 the mass of them to forego maternity, as incon- 

 sistent with their duties as laborers. The stor- 

 ing instinct and the necessity for the nest 

 being compact, induced a change in the comb 



* In the beginning we are told that " the Lord God 

 had not caused it to rain on the earth " but that 

 "there went up a mist, and watered the whole face 

 of the ground." And from then to the deluge, a 

 period of nearly two thousand years, no mention 

 is made of a change in the order of things, or of 

 rain : and hence there is room for conjecture that 

 rain had not fell on the anted el uvian world. Until 

 then, per chance, no cloud had vailed the sun, no 

 thunder hnd shaken their coast, or lightning played, 

 on the gathering storm. (Latta, in Chain of 8a 

 cred Wonders). This conjecture isfurther strength- 

 ened by th fact that the rainbow, which is the result 

 of known fixed laws of nature, and depends for its 

 existence on the actiot of the suns rays on clouds cr 

 falling rain, was unknown until then. " I do set my 

 how in the cloud, etc." (Gen. 9 : 13.) 



structures. From having a single sheet of comb 

 hung to the limb of- a tree; as Apis testarec of 

 Borneo still has, they were compelled when 

 they resorted to cavities, to build several par- 

 allel sheets, so close together that the interspaces 

 would only admit the bees on each to pass over 

 their surfaces, without their backs interfering. 

 This new arrangement produced a marked effect 

 on the whole population. There was no longer 

 room to build the cells of a sufficient length to 

 allow a full length bee to mature in them, the 

 result of which was the imperfect, or worker, 

 female was produced. 



It may be. objected to this theory, that the 

 cells might be made deep enough ; but to do so 

 would prevent the queen from depositing eggs 

 in them in the normal position, for she could 

 not lay in the cells if they were longer than her 

 abdomen, and when queens are produced the 

 cell has to be lengthened out after the egg is 

 laid. 



By this shortening of the bees there is not 

 room for the full developement of the ovaries; 

 these organs are partly aborted, and only in very 

 rare instances are they capable of laying eggs, 

 which being un fecundated, only produce male 

 bees. In the degeneracy of the sexual instincts, 

 the storing instinct is strengthened, and the 

 social condition of the colony is perfected. 



Entomologists tell us that there are about two 

 thousand species of Apiarce (bees). How many 

 of them are mere deviatioi s from the same 

 primitive type that produced our honey bee, we 

 have no means of ascertaining. Of the honey 

 bee proper (Apis,) there are but a limited num- 

 ber of distinct kinds. Whether there is pro- 

 perly more than one species naturalists have not 

 determined. So far as I have seen any evidence, 

 there is nothing to prove that they are not all 

 of the same species, but in their diffusion over 

 the earth they have met with different con- 

 ditions, that have caused variations in color, 

 size and other peculiarities, and they are but 

 races, varieties or variations. 



The Italian, the Egyptian and the common 

 black bee have been considered different species, 

 but when tested by the law of cross breeding, 

 they prove not to be so. The recognized law 

 of cross breeding is this. When the union of 

 two specie* takes place, the offspring is n/t ybrid, 

 and is sterile, or if they can reproduce at all the 

 power is extinguished in the third or fourth 

 generation. Such is not the case with the kinds 

 I have named. They have been crossed re- 

 peatedly upon each other, without any such re- 

 sults. No hyhmd has been produced. On the 

 contrary the union of different varieties or races 

 produces a fertile offspring, or as it is called a 

 mongrel, which is often more fertile than either 

 of the original varieties, or races. 



