NOISES OF INSECTS. 491 



is then with earnest entreaties, lamentations and groans, supplicating the 

 queen-mother of the hive to grant her permission to lead the intended 

 colony; that this is continued, before she can obtain her consent, for two 

 days when the old queen relenting gives her fiat in a fuller and stronger 

 tone. That .should the former presume to imitate the tones of the sove- 

 reign, this being the signal of revolt, she would be executed on the spot, 

 with all whom she had seduced from their loyalty. 1 But it is time to 

 leave fables : I shall, therefore, next relate to you what really takes place. 

 You have heard how the bees detain their young queens till they are fit to 

 lead a swarm. I then mentioned the attitude and sound that strike the 

 former motionless. When she emits this authoritative sound, reclining her 

 thorax against a comb, the queen stands with her wings crossed upon her 

 back, which, without being uncrossed or further expanded, are kept in 

 constant vibration. The tone thus produced is a very distinct kind of 

 clicking, composed of many notes in the same key, which follow each 

 other rapidly. This sound the queens emit before they are permitted to 

 leave their cells ; but it does not then seem to affect the bees. But when 

 once they are liberated from confinement and assume the above attitude, 

 its effects upon them are very remarkable. As soon as the sound was 

 heard, Huber tells us, bees that had been employed in plucking, biting, and 

 chasing the queen about, hung down their heads and remained altogether 

 motionless ; and whenever she had recourse to this attitude and sound, 

 they operated upon them in the same manner. The writer just mentioned 

 observed differences both with regard to the succession and intensity of 

 the notes and tones of this royal song ; and as he justly remarks, there 

 may be still finer shades which, escaping our organs, may be distinctly per- 

 ceived by the bees. 2 He seems, however, to doubt .by what means this 

 sound is produced. Reasoning analogically, the motion of the wings 

 should occasion it. We have seen that they are in constant motion when 

 it is uttered. Probably the intensity of the tones and their succession are 

 regulated by the intensity of the vibrations of the wings. Reaumur re- 

 marks, that the different tones of the bees, whether more or less grave or 

 acute, are produced by the strokes, more or less rapid, of their wings 

 against the air; and that, perhaps, their different angles of inclination may 

 vary the sound. The friction of their bases likewise against the sides of 

 the cavity in which they are inserted, as in the case of the fly lately men- 

 tioned, or against the base-covers (tegukB), may produce or modulate their 

 sounds, a bee whose wings are eradicated being perfectly mute. 3 This last 

 assertion, however, is contradicted by John Hunter, who affirms that bees 

 produce a noise independent of their wings, emitting a shrill and peevish 

 sound though they are cut off, and the legs held fast. 4 Yet it does not 

 appear from his experiment that the wings were eradicated. And if they 

 were only cut off, the friction of their base might cause the sound. I 

 have before noticed the remarkable fact, that the queens educated accord- 

 ing to M Schirach's method are absolutely mute ; on which account the 

 bees keep no guard around thoir cells, nor retain them an instant in them 

 after their transformation. 5 



The passions, also, which urge us to various exclamations, elicit from 



* Reaum. v. 615. Butler's Female Monarchy, c. v. 4. 



* Huber, i. 260. ii. 292. 



3 Reaum. v. 617. * Philos. Trans. 1792. * Huber, i. 292. 



