EXPERIMENTS ON QUEENS. 



Whether all this singularity and eccentricity of conduct was to 

 be ascribed to the excision of the antennso, or to that mutilation 

 combined with the partial sterility which limited her offspring to 

 drones, was not clear. To decide this point, Huber amputated 

 the antennee of a perfect queen, married at an early age, and who 

 was bearing a numerous offspring, consisting of workers, drones, 

 and princesses. This queen he placed in the same hive with the 

 former, with a view to determine at once two questions, the one 

 relating to the general conduct of the amputated queen, and the 

 other, that which regarded the mutual bearing of two mutilated 

 personages. 



The general conduct was the same as that of the former queen. 

 There was the same wild delirium ; the same rushing here and 

 there as if under the influence of intoxication ; the same efforts to 

 escape from the hive; and, in a word, the same peculiarity of con- 

 duct and manners. A like difference was apparent in their con- 

 duct towards each other. Instead of entering into deadly combat, 

 as queens in their natural state would have done in like circum- 

 stances, they met and passed each other again and again without 

 the slightest indication of mutual hostility. This is perhaps the 

 strongest proof which can be obtained, that the privation of the 

 antennae utterly subverted their natural instincts. 



Another curious social anomaly was manifested on this occasion. 

 It will be recollected that where a strange queen is introduced 

 into a hive over which a regular sovereign already presides, the 

 population surround her, confine her as a prisoner within a ring 

 of sentinels, and refuse to permit her to enter their city. In the 

 present case, no such measures were adopted. On the contrary, 

 the second mutilated queen was received with the same signs of 

 welcome, and immediately became the same object of attention 

 and homage as the first. 



But the most wonderful fact of all those developed in this 

 series of experiments, was that when a third queen in the perfect 

 state, without mutilation, was introduced, the bees who had 

 already treated the other two so well, immediately proceeded to 

 maltreat this third and perfect queen. They seized her, dragged 

 her about, bit her, and so closely surrounded her as to leave her 

 room neither to move nor to breathe. 



Having observed the apparent desire of these mutilated queens 

 to issue from the hive, which they were only prevented from 

 doing by the limited magnitude of the door, and desiring to see 

 whether the bees or any considerable number of them would 

 depart with her, as they would do with a perfect queen, Huber, 

 after taking away the two queens who were sterile, or partially 

 so, and leaving her who was fruitful in all respects, but deprived 



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