0(3 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



of Avax, along -with a comb of about ten silken 

 cocoons so unequal in height (hat it was impos- 

 sible the mass should stand firmly. Its un- 

 steadiness disquieted the humble-bees ex- 

 tl•emel3^ Their affection for their young led 

 them to mount upon the cocoons for the sake 

 of imparting warmth to the enclosed little ones; 

 but in attempting this the comb tottered so 

 violently that the scheme was almost im- 

 praetica])ie. To remedy this inconvenience, 

 and to make the comb steady, they had 

 recourse to a most ingenious expedient. Two 

 or three bees got upon the comb, stretched 

 themselves over its edge, and with their heads 

 downwards fixed their fore feet on the table 

 upon which it stood, whilst with their hind 

 feet they kept it from falling. In this con- 

 strained and painful posture, fresh bees relieving 

 their comrades when weary, did these 

 affectionate little insects supported the comb for 

 nearly three days. At the end of this period 

 they had prepared a sufficiency of wax with 

 Avhich they built pillars that kept it in a firm 

 position, but by some accident afterwards these 

 got displaced, when they had again recourse to 

 their former manoeuvre for supplying their 

 place ; and this operation they perseveringly 

 continued until M. Huber, pitying their hard 

 case, relieved them by fixing the object of their 

 attention firmly on the table. 



It is impossible not to be struck with the 

 reflection that this most singular fact is in- 

 explicable on the supposition that insects are 

 impelled to their operations hy a blind instinct 

 alone. How could mere machines have thus 

 provided for a case which in a state of nature 

 has probably never occurred to ten nests of 

 humble-bees since the creation ? If in this 

 instance the little animals were not guided by 

 a process of reasoning, what is the distinction 

 l)etween reason and instinct ? How could the 

 most profound architect have better adapted the 

 means to the end ; how more dexterously 

 shored up a tottering edifice, until his beams 

 and his props were in readiness? — Kirby. 



Bees. 



Habitations of Insects. 



Mr. Tegetmeier recently maintained before 

 the London Entomological Society that bees 

 have no instinct in shaping their cells, as has 

 been usually supposed, but the form is the con- 

 sequence of the law or property of space ; that 

 6f seven circles of equal radii, six will just sur- 

 round the seventh. The cell of the bee is inva- 

 riably hemispherical at its commencement, and 

 the section of a cell not in contact with anotlier 

 always circular. 



The odor exhaled from the hives, and the 

 size of the bees on their return from foraging 

 excursions, arc always sure indications whether 

 the flowers contain honey. 



Great progress is being made in bee-culture 

 in this country, as it has been concluded to be 

 a very profitable undertaking. We expect the 

 introduction of Egyptian bees in this country 

 shortly. 



The solitary insects which construct habi- 

 tations for their future young without any 

 view to their own accommodation, chiefly belong 

 to the order Hymenoptera^ and are principally 

 different species of wild bees and wasps. Of 

 these the most simple are built by CoUetes suc- 

 cincta, fodiens, &c. The situation which the 

 parent bee chooses is either the dry earth of a 

 bank, or the vacuities of stone walls cemented 

 with earth instead of mortar. Having exca- 

 vated a cylinder about two inches in depth, 

 running usually in a horizontal direction, the 

 bee occupies it with three or four cells about 

 half an inch long, and one sixth broad, shaped 

 like a thimble, the end of one fitting into the 

 mouth of another. The substance of which 

 these cells are formed is two or three layers of 

 a silky membrane, composed of a kind of glue 

 secreted by the animal, resembling gold-beater's 

 leaf, but much finer, and so thin and transparent 

 that the color of an included object maj^ be 

 seen through them. As soon as one cell is 

 completed, the bee deposits an egg within, and 

 nearly fills it with a paste composed of pollen 

 and honey, which having done, she proceeds 

 to form another cell, storing it in like manner 

 until the whole is finished, when she carefully 

 stops up the mouth of the orifice with earth. 

 Our countryman Grew seems to have found a 

 series of these nests in a singular situation — the 

 middle of the pith of an old elder branch — in 

 Avhich they were placed lengthwise one after 

 another, with a thin boundary between each. 



Cells composed of a similar membranaceous 

 substance, but placed in a different situation, 

 are constructed by AntMdium inanicatwm. This 

 gay insect does not excavate holes for their 

 reception, but places them in the cavities of old 

 trees, or of any other object that suits its pur- 

 pose. Sir Thomas Cullum discovered the nest 

 of one in the inside of the lock of a garden- 

 gate, in which I have also since twice found 

 them. It should seem, however, that such 

 situations would be too cold for the grubs with- 

 out a coating of some non-conducting substance. 

 The parent bee, therefore, after having con- 

 structed the cells, laid an egg in each, and 

 filled them Avith a store of suitable food, plasters 

 them with a covering of vermiform masses, 

 apparently composed of honey and pollen; and 

 having done this, aware, long before • Count 

 Rumford's experiments, what materials conduct 

 heat most slowly, she attacks the woolly leaves 

 of Stachys laiiala, Agrostemma coronaria^ and 

 similar i)lants, and Avith her mandibles indus- 

 triously scrapes off the avooI, which with her 

 fore-legs she rolls into a little ball and carries 

 to her nest. This wool she sticks upon the 

 plaster that covers her cells, and thus closely 

 envelops them with a warm coating of doAvn, 

 impervious to every change of temperature. 



The bee last described may be said to exercise 

 the trade of a clptJdcr. Another i\umerous 

 family would be more projierly compared to 

 carpenters, boring with incredible labor out of 

 the solid wood long cjdiudrical tubes, and 

 dividing them into various cells. Amougsc 

 these, one of the most remarkable is Xylocupa 



