214 AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG. 



nomy, M. P. Huber, a worthy scion of a celebrated stock, and an inheritor 

 of the science and merits of the great Huber as well as of his name, in his 

 excellent paper on these insects in the sixth volume of the Linnean Trans- 

 actions, from which most of these facts are drawn, relates a singularly 

 curious anecdote. 



In the course of his ingenious and numerous experiments, M. Huber 

 put under a bell-glass about a dozen humble-bees without any store of 

 wax, along with a comb of about ten silken cocoons so unequal in height 

 that it was impossible the mass should stand firmly. Its unsteadiness dis- 

 quieted the humble-bees extremely. Their affection for their young led 

 them to mount upon the cocoons for the sake of imparting warmth to the 

 enclosed little ones, but in attempting this the comb tottered so violently 

 that the scheme was almost impracticable. To remedy this inconvenience, 

 and to make the comb steady, they had recourse to a most ingenious 

 expedient. Two or three bees got upon the comb, stretched themselves 

 over its edge, and with their heads downwards fixed their fore feet on the 

 table upon which it stood, whilst with their hind feet they kept it from, 

 falling. In this constrained and painful posture, fresh bees relieving their 

 comrades when weary, did these affectionate little insects support the 

 comb for nearly three days. At the end of this period they had prepared 

 a sufficiency of wax, with which they built pillars that kept it in a firm 

 position : but by some accident afterwards these got displaced, when they 

 had again recourse to their former manoeuvre for supplying their place ; 

 and this operation they perseveringly continued until M. Huber, pitying 

 their hard case, relieved them by fixing the object of their attention firmly 

 on the table. 1 



It is impossible not to be struck with the reflection that this most sin- 

 gular fact is inexplicable on the supposition that insects are impelled to 

 their operations by a blind instinct alone. How could mere machines 

 have thus provided for a case which in a state of nature has probably 

 never occurred to ten nests of humble-bees since the creation ? If in this 

 instance these little animals were not guided by a process of reasoning, 

 what is the distinction between reason and instinct ? How could the 

 most profound architect have better adapted the means to the end how 

 more dexterously shored up a tottering edifice, until his beams and his 

 props were in readiness ? 



With respect to the operations of the termites or white ants in rearing 

 their young, I have not much to observe. All that is known is, that they 

 build commodious cells for their reception, into which the eggs of the 

 queen are conveyed by the workers as soon as laid, and where when 

 hatched they are assiduously fed by them until they are able to provide 

 for themselves. 



In concluding this subject, it may not be superfluous to advert to an ob- 

 jection which is sometimes thrown out against regarding with any parti- 



her place. From an observation made at noon, July 13., he found that while the 

 thermometer stood at 70 0> 2 in the external air, and at 80 0> 2 on the tops of the cells 

 of the hive not brooded on, it stood at 92*5 when placed in contact with the bodies 

 of the incubating nurse-bees, which thus by their voluntary rapid respiration im- 

 parted an additional heat of 12'3 to the enclosed nymph. {Phil. Trans. 1837, 

 p. 296.) 



1 Linn. Trans, vi. 247, &c. 



