THE BEE. 



Lest it might be imagined, as indeed Swammerdam supposed,, 

 that the marriage is really consummated in this case in the hive, 

 and that her majesty is only rendered sterile by the mutilation 

 she has undergone, Huber cut off the wings of a queen imme- 

 diately after the royal nuptials, but before her majesty had yet any 

 offspring. In this case, however, her fertility was as great as usual, 

 and she produced the customary number and variety of eggs. 



187. One of the questions in insect physiology, which has been 

 attended with a certain degree of doubt, is that which regards 

 the functions of the antenna?. Huber, therefore, desiring to 

 ascertain how the queen would be affected by the privation of 

 these organs, cut off first one and then both, observing the conduct 

 of her majesty after such mutilation. 



The excision of one only of the antenna? produced no dis- 

 coverable effect upon her faculties or conduct, but the amputation 

 of both was followed by some very remarkable consequences. 



The antenna? of a queen of limited fertility, who was incapable 

 of having other than drone offspring, were cut off. From the 

 moment she lost these organs she appeared to be affected by a 

 sort of delirious intoxication. She ran over the combs with extra- 

 ordinary vivacity. She did not give her suite, who formed the 

 usual circle around her, time to make way for her, but rushed 

 madly through them, violently breaking their ranks. She did 

 not deposit her eggs in cells, but dropped them at hazard. The 

 hive not being very full, there were parts of it unoccupied by 

 combs. To these parts she rushed, and remained there a con- 

 siderable time quiescent, appearing to avoid the presence of her 

 subjects. Some of them, nevertheless, followed her to these 

 deserted places, and eagerly testified their solicitude for her, 

 caressing her, and offering her honey. This she generally 

 declined ; and when now and then she seemed disposed reluctantly 

 to accept it, she appeared to lose the power of presenting her 

 proboscis to receive it, directing that organ at one time to the 

 head and at another to the legs of the workers, so that it was 

 only by chance it encountered their mouths. She would then 

 run back to the combs, and from the combs to the glazed sides of 

 the hive, in wild delirium, never ceasing to drop her eggs here 

 and there as she went along. 



At other moments she seemed to be tormented with a desire to 

 quit the hive, and rushed to the door for that purpose, but the 

 orifice being too small to allow her body to pass through it, she 

 was forced to desist, and returned to the interior. Notwithstand- 

 ing this state of delirium, the bees never ceased to lavish upon 

 her those cares which they are accustomed to bestow on their 

 queen ; but she received them with indifference. 

 94 



