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BEE. 



Bee. 



that they may be able to fly the instant of being 

 hatched. The new queen occupied all our attention. 

 When she approached the other cells, the bees on 

 guard, pulled, bit her, and chased her away : they 

 seemed to be greatly irritated against her, and she en- 

 joyed tranquillity only when at a considerable distance 

 from the cells. This proceeding was frequently re- 

 peated through the day. She twice emitted the 

 same distinct sound or clacking that had been heard 

 in her prison, consisting of several monotonous notes, 

 in rapid succession : and in doing so she stood with her 

 thorax against a comb, and her wings crossed on her 

 back : they were in motion, but without being un- 

 folded or opened. Whatever might be the cause of 

 her assuming this attitude, the bees were affected by 

 it : all hung down their heads, and remained motion- 

 less. The hive presented the same scenes next day. 

 Twenty-three royal cells yet remained assiduously 

 guarded by a great many bees : when the queen ap- 

 proached, all the guards became agitated, surrounded 

 her on every side, bit her, and commonly drove her 

 away. Sometimes, when in these circumstances, she 

 emitted the sound, and assumed the posture just de- 

 scribed : from that moment the bees became motion- 

 less." Several queens were successively liberated, 

 some of which had led out swarms ; but eighteen cells 

 still remained to be guarded. " The fifth queen left 

 her cell at ten at night ; and two queens were now 

 in the hive : they immediately began fighting, 

 but came to disengage themselves from each other. 

 However, they again tought several times through the 

 night, without any thing decisive. Next day, the 

 thirteenth of June, we witnessed the death of one, 

 which fell by the wounds of her enemy. The duel 

 was quite similar to what occurs in the combats of 

 queens. The victorious young queen now exhibited 

 a very singular spectacle : she approached a royal 

 cell, and took this moment to utter that sound and to 

 assume that posture which strike the bees motion- 

 less. For some minutes we conceived, that, taking 

 advantage of the dread shewn by the workers on 

 tjuard, she would open the cell and destroy the young 

 rental? : and she in fact prepared to mount the cell ; 

 but in doing so she ceased to emit the sound, and 

 quitted the attitude which paralyses the workers : 

 the guardians of the cell instantly resumed courage, 

 and by means of tormenting and biting the queen, 

 drove her away." 



These remarks are necessary to illustrate, how one 

 of the princip.il enemies of bees can attain its ends 

 with impunity. The sphinx atropos, which was long 

 unsuspected, has recently been discovered to be a most 

 formidable ravager of their stores. In years, when 

 they had multiplied \.o an uncommon extent, whole 

 districts of hives were plundered of all their honey : 

 and it was not until after the injury had been done, that 

 it was traced to its real source. Numbers of moths 

 had made their way into the hives, and satiated them- 

 selves with honey so long as it remained in the cells : 

 and possibly as it decreased, the season when these 

 animals abounded came to a close. But it must ap- 

 pear very surprising how a moth, quite unprotected 

 with external means of defence, and li.ible, at the mo- 

 rn nt of its entrance, to be pierced by ;i thousand 

 sting*, each of which inflicts a mortal wound, can 

 venture on so hazardous a pursuit. We must here 



recollect, however, that this identical insect is one, 

 perhaps almost the only one, supposed to possess 

 something like voice : and, at the same time, that the 

 sound emitted by it bears a narrow resemblance to 

 the peculiar sound proceeding from the queen bee, 

 which paralyses the workers. It is thence far from 

 improbable, that the first resistance opposed to the 

 entry of the moth may be productive of this sound, 

 which, though arising from accident alone, may have 

 the singular effect of depriving the bees of the power 

 of repulsion. If these facts be firmly established, and 

 the conclusions just, it would be well worth the atten- 

 tion of cultivators to investigate whether any similar 

 sound can be artificially produced, and whether it 

 will have influence on the bees. They are perfectly 

 aware of the presence of so redoubtable an enemy, 

 and the danger resulting from it. In autumn 1804, 

 the copious collections of honey which had been 

 made during summer, had entirely disappeared, and 

 the moths were uncommonly abundant. The owners 

 of a number of hives resolving to protect them from 

 further pillage, closed their entrances with tin gra- 

 tings, where the apertures were proportioned to the 

 size of the bees, on the 17th of September : but not 

 having enough for the whole, two were left unsecu- 

 red. It was seen next morning on examination, that, 

 during the night, the bees had themselves taken the 

 necessary precautions, by contracting the entrances 

 of their hives, so as to make them quite safe against 

 invasio'n. Each was completely blockaded by a wall, 

 composed of old wax and farina, in which the bees 

 had taken care to leave apertures corresponding to their 

 own size : two, that would prevent above two bees 

 passing at a time, were fashioned like inverted arches ;. 

 a third was broad enough in front to admit of the 

 passage of several bees at once, but so low, that they 

 were obliged to lean over on one side to get through. 

 All the other hives proved, on inspection, to be con- 

 structed in the same way, even where provided with 

 the tin gratings. In other instances, the bees had 

 constructed a double wall at the entrance of the hive, 

 with covered galleries, so narrow, that no more than 

 a single bee could pass : fifty-three swarms began 

 these operations in the course of the same night. 

 Bees, when attacked by plunderers of their own spe- 

 cies, have been known to adopt similar precautions. 

 On the 9th of July 1804, an observer having found 

 some of those, belonging to a neighbouring hive, ly- 

 ing dead on the board of a swarm that they had 

 come to pillage, watched the proceedings of the lat- 

 ter. On the 11th of the month, they had built up 

 their entrance, leaving only two apertures at the part 

 highest above the board, which would admit no more 

 than one bee at a time : they were thus proportion- 

 ed to the size of their enemies, and. could be suffi- 

 ciently guarded by two workers. But, in the sequel, 

 they were enlarged, and on the 22d, they would have 

 allowed tw.i or three bees to pass at once. w Was 

 this," the observer asks, " because they were sensible 

 of having drones among them, for which these open- 

 ings were too small ?" No farina being in the coun- 

 try at that period, the bees had built their wall of 

 pure wax taken from the edges of their combs. Ln 

 a subsequent fortification erected during September, 

 they used farina along with the wax employed in it. 

 it is important to attend to the circumstances which 



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