HYMENOPTEBA. 351 



vanquished, returned to their hive. But very soon there was a 

 great noise in the interior of the hive, and the bees were seen, 

 assembled together in a serried mass, to dash forward with the 

 speed of a cannon-ball towards the enemy, which, this time, flew 

 away at full speed and came back no more. Then the bees made 

 a triumphal entry into their dwelling, satisfied with the success 

 of their tactics.* 



We have just said that there are sentinels at the entrance of 

 every hive. They touch with their antennae each individual that 

 wishes to penetrate into the house. Hornets, the Death's-head 

 Sphinx, slugs, &c., often try to introduce themselves into the hive. 

 In that case, on the appeal of the watchful porters, all the bees 

 combine their efforts to defend the entrance to their habitation. 

 It would be impossible for them, in fact, to stop the ravages of 

 their enemies when once entered into the interior. When a 

 sphinx has succeeded in introducing itself into a hive, it sits down 

 and drinks the honey in great bumpers, devouring all the pro- 

 visions ; and the unfortunate proprietors of the house are obliged 

 to emigrate. To stop the entrance of moths which fly by night, 

 the bees contract, and sometimes barricade, their door with a 

 mixture of wax and propolis. When a slug or any other large 

 animal has managed to introduce itself into the interior, they kill 

 it and wrap it up in a shroud of propolis, as we have already 

 related. 



However, they are quite helpless against certain microscopic 

 parasites which sometimes attack them. The bee-louse, which 

 has been described and drawn by Reaumur in one of his Memoirs, f 

 and the parasite which was described in 1866 by M. Duchemin, 

 the Sugar Acarus, which is found in the liquid honey of 

 those hives which are attacked by the disease called the rot 

 (pourriture), are the most serious enemies of the bee. The 

 Gallerias are also terrible enemies to them. Every hive thus 

 attacked is ruined. These destructive insects attack also the wild 

 bees, drive them from, their nests, and destroy the wax of the 

 cakes forming the honeycomb. The Galleria impudently makes 

 his home in the houses of bees, wild as well as domesticated. 



* " Les Abeilles et 1' Apiculture," in 8, 2nd edition. Paris, 1865. Page 107. 

 f Tome v., planche 36. 



