THE BEE. 287 



hive in which she was at first treated as a prisoner. If 

 twenty-four hours have elapsed, the stranger will be well 

 received from the first, and at once admitted to the sove- 

 reignty of the hive. In short, it appears that the bees, 

 when deprived of their queen, are thrown into great agita- 

 tion ; that they wait about twenty hours, apparently in 

 hopes of her return ; but that, after this interregnum, the 

 agitation ceases; and they set about supplying their loss 

 by beginning to construct royal cells. It is when they are 

 in this temper, and not sooner, that a stranger queen will 

 be graciously received ; and upon her being presented to 

 them, the royal cells, in whatever state of forwardness they 

 may happen to be, are instantly abandoned, and the larvae 

 destroyed. Reaumur must, therefore, have mistaken the 

 result of his own experiments, when he asserts, that a 

 stranger queen is instantly well received, though presented 

 at the moment when the other is withdrawn. He had seen 

 the bees crowding round her at the entrance of the hive, 

 and laying their antennae over her; and this he seems to 

 have taken for caressing. The structure of the hives he 

 employed prevented him from seeing further; had he used 

 the leaf-hive, or one of similar construction, he would have 

 perceived that the apparent caresses of the guards were 

 only the prelude of actual imprisonment. 



After the season of swarming, it is well known, a gen- 

 eral massacre of the drones is commenced. Several au- 

 thors assert that the workers do not sting the drones to 

 death, but merely harass them till they be banished from 

 the hive and perish. M. Huber contrived a glass table, on 

 which he placed several hives, and he was thus able to 

 see distinctly what passed in the bottom of the hive, which 

 is generally dark and concealed ; he witnessed a real and 

 furious massacre of the males, the workers thrusting their 

 stings so deep into the bodies of the defenceless drones, 

 that they were obliged to turn on themselves as on a pivot, 

 before they could extricate them. The work of death com- 



