VI ORIGIN OF THE STORING INSTINCT Tn 



winter store quite meclianically without knowing wherefore. 

 But if this were so, it would be impossible to understand 

 why the instinct of storing in the queen has in reality not 

 been improved, but has been lost. And this view is also 

 improbable on account of the high mental endowments — not 

 of an instinctive character — which are displayed by the 

 hymenoptera. 



The origin of the storing instinct might again be exj^lained 

 by the supposition that the winter, or in warmer regions the 

 time unfavourable to collecting, has been gradually prolonged, 

 and that only those communities of bees survived which 

 were the most industrious. But the same objections as were 

 made against the previous view apply to this, and in addition 

 various others into which I will not here enter. 



It seems to me, indeed, necessary to assume that a gradual 

 prolongation of the period of the year unfavourable to collect- 

 ing must have contributed to the development of the bee 

 community in its present condition, and especially to the 

 accumulation of larger stores ; but it is equally necessary to 

 suppose that reflection and foresight in the bees worked 

 hand in hand with this cause, and have been increased by 

 experience.'^ A proof that bees even now collect their stores 

 in full consciousness that these are a necessity for them is 

 afforded by the fact, known to every bee-master, that the 

 bees, especially the Italian, angrily pursue the person who 

 has taken away their honey. Even several days after the 

 removal of the honey individual bees pursue any one in the 

 neighbourhood of the hive and endeavour to sting him. 

 According to statements which seem to me perfectly reliable, 

 bee-keepers who allowed their bees no peace and continually 

 took from them the last drop of their honey have been 



^ In Australia, where tlie bees find supplies almost all the year round, the 

 instinct of collecting a store for future use is said in fact to disappear in a com- 

 paratively short time, so that it is necessary constantly to renew it by the im- 

 portation of foreign queens. 



