THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL AND GAZETTE. 



225 



selves of a certain number, but not to increase 

 that number. Bei's cemented their combs, 

 ■when becoming heavy, to the top of the hive 

 with mitys, in the time of Aristotle and Pliuj'' 

 as they do now ; and tliere is every reason to 

 believe that then, as now, they occasionally 

 varied their procedures, by securing them with 

 wax or with propolis only, either added to the 

 upper ranges of cells, or disposed in braces and 

 ties to the adjoining combs. But if in thus pro- 

 ceeding they were guided by reason, why not 

 under certa n circumstances adopt other modes 

 of strengthening their combs V Why not, when 

 wax and propolis are scarce, employ vM«f^, which 

 which they might see the martin avail herself 

 of so successfully ? Or why should it not come 

 into the head of some hoary denizen of the 

 hive, that a little mortar with which his careful 

 master plasters the crevices between his habi- 

 tation and its stand might answer the end of 

 mitys ? We might say of the phenomena in 

 question — Show us but one instance of Iwies hav- 

 ing submitted mud or mortar tor mitys, pisso- 

 ceros, or propolis, or wooden props for waxen 

 lies, and there could be no doubt of their being 

 here guided by reason. But since no such in- 

 stance is on record; since they are still confined 

 to the same limits — however surprising the 

 range of these limits- — as they were two thous- 

 and years ago ; and since the bees emerged from 

 their pupfe but a few hours belorewill set them- 

 selves as adroitly to work, and pursue their 

 operations as scientifically as their brethren, 

 who can boast the experience of a long life of 

 twelve months duration ; we must still regard 

 these actions as variations of instinct. 



In the second place, no degree of reason that 

 we can with any share of proliability attribute 

 to bees could ue competent to the pertbrmance 

 of labor so complicated as those we have been 

 considiriug, and which, if the result of reason, 

 would involve the mo.st extensive and varied 

 knowledge in the agents. Sui)pose a man to 

 liave attained by long practice the art of mod- 

 delling wax into a congeries of uniform hex- 

 agon-al ^ells, with pj'ramidal bottoms composed 

 each of three rhombs, resembling the cells of 

 workers among bees. Let him now be set to 

 make a congeries of similar but larger cells 

 (answering to the male cells'), and unite these 

 with the lormer by other iiexagonal cells, so 

 that there should be no disruption in the con- 

 tinuity or regularity' of the whole assemblage, 

 and no vacant intervals or patching at the junc- 

 tions either of the tubes or the bottoms of the 

 cells ; and you would have s» t him no very 

 easy task— a task, in short, which it may be 

 doubted if he would satisfactorily perform in a 

 twelvemonth, though gifted with a clear head 

 and a competent store of geometrical knowl- 

 edge, and which, if destitute of these requisites, 

 it may be safely asserted that he would never 

 perform at all. How then can we imagine it 

 jjossible that this difficult problem, and others 

 of a similar kind, can be so completely and ex- 

 actly solved by animals of wliich some are not 

 two days old, ethers not a week, and probably 

 none a year V The conclusion is irresistible — 

 it is not reason but instinct that is their guide. 



KiRBY & SpENCE. 



PoMEROY, O., April 6, 1876. 

 Mrs. E. S. Tuppek: 



In your "Letter III," published in the Prai- 

 rie Farmer of the aOlh ultimo, I was pleased to 

 see presented, in a very condensed lorm, the 

 economy of the bee-hive, which, although not 

 new to me, was nevertheless intere-stiug and in- 

 structive. The theory that worker-bees are un- 

 developed or imperfectly developed temales is 

 fully sustained by the researches of the most 

 distinguislid apiarians. 



But the thoughts which have been suggested 

 by these focls have led me a step beyond the 

 practiciil. I could not resist the temptation to 

 speculate about the manner of protiucing the 

 difierencc between queens and workers, for, ac- 

 cording to the admitted and current theory on 

 the subject, there existed the embryo of a per- 

 fect female in all the eggs, which afterwards 

 became workers. The mere statement of the 

 matter suggests the idea, that the c/umge, what- 

 ever it may be, is necessary to produce the 

 worker, otherwise all eggs would become 

 queens. 



How this change is produced and what it is, 

 we liave no means to decide with certainty, 

 because positive and direct evidence is wanting 

 on the subject. But the known tacts and cir- 

 cumstances connected with this interest ng sub- 

 ject induce me to believe tiiat the Creator, in 

 bestowing upon bees their instincts, taught the 

 workers not only to fted the young bees in their 

 laiva state, but also to perform a surgical opera- 

 tion^ (I can find no other terms to express the 

 idea,) in which the ovary of ea.ch little Avorni, 

 in a worker cell, is destroyed. 



Among the facts tiiat point to the truth of 

 this conclusion I will name but a few. For 

 instam e, the fact that after a certain age of the 

 larva in a worker cell a queen cannot be j^i'o- 

 duced from it, and the occasional imperfect de- 

 velopment of the ovary in a worker, are facts 

 that convince me that something more is neces- 

 sary to produce the difiereuee between the 

 queen and worker bees than mere extra care 

 and the '"royal lood" we read about. 



The operation suggested 1 think will also ac- 

 count lor the ditiereuce in the time required to 

 develop and mature the queen and worker — 

 seventeen days tor the first, and twenty-one for 

 the latter. 



But in the nests of other bees, such as the 

 humble-bee, hornet, j'ellow-jacket, «tc., there 

 are workers during ail the summer and early 

 part of autumn. The individuals of these in- 

 sects which make their appearance first in the 

 spring are the mothers of the colonies lound in 

 mid-summer and much larger than their pro- 

 geny. The last brood of the sea on, however, 

 are as large as the mother was in the spring. 

 Of these, as many as survive the Avinter start 

 again, single-handed, as the head and mother 

 ot a new colou3^ The iulerence is, that the 

 workers are produced in the same manner as 

 above suggested in the case of the honey-bee. 

 If il is said that the iustiuLts and habits of the 

 queen differ mater. ally trom the instincts iind 

 habits of workers, il is answered tliat tliey are 

 difiercntly constituted ; and all over the animal 

 kingdom instinct accords with constitution. We 



