HYMENOPTEEA. 341 



happened she sang, resuming the attitude which I just now de- 

 scribed; from that moment the bees became motionless/'* But 

 the fever which had seized on the young queen ended by com- 

 municating itself to her subjects, and, at a particular moment, a 

 new swarm set out under her guidance. 



When the emigration is effected, the workers which had remained 

 at home set free another female. This one acts in the same way 

 as the. first. She tries to get at her rivals still imprisoned, and 

 whom she can smell in their cradles ; .but the guard repel her 

 with vigour, and defeat all her attempts, till she makes up her mind 

 to emigrate with a new swarm. This curious scene is repeated, 

 with the same circumstances, three or four times in the space of a 

 fortnight, if the weather is favourable, and the hive well peopled. 

 In the end, the number of bees is so much reduced, that they 

 can no longer keep such vigilant guard round the royal cells, and 

 it then happens that two females come out together from their 

 cradles. Immediately the two rivals look for each other, and 

 fight, and the queen that comes victorious out of this duel to 

 the death reigns peaceably over the people she has won for 

 herself. If, in the tumult which precedes the swarming, a 

 female escapes from her prison, it may happen that she is carried 

 away in the swarm. In this case the deserters divide into two 

 separate bands, but the weakest in numbers are not long in 

 breaking up, the deserters going to swell the principal swarm. 

 At last all the troop is reunited, and it then contains two queens. 

 As long as the swarm remains fixed on its branch, all passes 

 quietly in spite of the presence of a second queen. But as soon as 

 it has become domiciled, the affair becomes serious ; a duel to the 

 death takes place between the two aspirants to the command. Two 

 queens cannot exist in the same hive. One of them is de trop, 

 and must be got rid of. 



Francis Huber was the first to describe these duels between the 

 queens. We quote an interesting account which he has left us 

 of a combat which he watched on the 12th of May, 1790 : " Two 

 young queens," says he, " came out on that day from the cells 

 almost at the same moment, in one of our smallest hives. As 

 soon as they saw each other they dashed one against the other 

 * " Observations sur les Abeilles," tome i., p. 260. 



