384 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



servoirs, even where the armed sight of science cannot discover it, is in a 

 moment detected by the microscopic eye of this animal. 



She has to attend to a double task to collect materials for bee-bread 

 as well as for honey and wax. Observe a bee that has alighted upon an 

 open flower. The hum produced by the motion of her wings ceases, and 

 her employment begins. In an instant she unfolds her tongue, which 

 before was rolled up under her head. With what rapidity does she dart 

 this organ between the petals and the stamina ! At one time she extends 

 it to its full length, then she contracts it : she moves it about in all direc- 

 tions, so that it may be applied both to the concave and convex surface of 

 a petal, and wipe them both ; and thus by a virtuous theft robs it of all 

 its nectar. All the while this is going on, she keeps herself in a constant 

 vibratory motion. The object of the industrious animal is not, like the 

 more selfish butterfly, to appropriate this treasure to herself. It goes into 

 the honey-bag as into a laboratory, where it is transformed into pure 

 honey ; and when she returns to the hive, she regurgitates it in this form 

 into one of the cells appropriated to that purpose; in order that, after 

 tribute is paid from it to the queen, it may constitute a supply of food for 

 the rest of the community. 



In collecting honey, bees do not solely confine themselves to flowers ; 

 they will sometimes very greedily absorb the sweet juices of fruits : this I 

 have frequently observed with respect to the raspberries in my garden, and 

 have noticed it, as you may recollect, in a former letter. They will also 

 eat sugar, and produce wax from it ; but, from Huber's observations, it 

 appears not calculated to supply the place of honey in the jelly with which 

 the larvae are fed. 1 Though the great mass of the food of bees is collected 

 from flowers, they do not wholly confine themselves to a vegetable diet ; 

 for, besides the honeyed secretion of the Aphides, the possession of which 

 they will sometimes dispute with the ants 2 , upon particular occasions they 

 will eat the eggs of the queen. They are very fond also of the fluid that 

 oozes from the cells of the pupae, and will suck eagerly all that is fluid in 

 their abdomen after they are destroyed by their rivals. 3 Several flowers 

 that produce much honey they pass by ; in some instances, from inability 

 to get at it. Thus, for this reason probably, they do not attempt those of 

 the trumpet-honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens}, which, if separated from 

 the germen after they are open, will yield two or three drops of the purest 

 nectar. So that were this shrub cultivated with that view, much honey 

 in its original state might be obtained from a small number of plants. In 

 other cases, it appears to be the poisonous quality of their honey that in- 

 duces bees to neglect certain flowers. You have doubtless observed the 

 conspicuous white nectaries of the crown imperial (Fritillaria imperia/is), 

 and that they secrete abundance of this fluid. It tempts in vain the 

 passing bee, probably aware of some noxious quality that it possesses. 

 The oleander (Nerium Oleander) yields a honey that proves fatal to thou- 

 sands of imprudent flies ; but our bees, more wise and cautious, avoid it. 

 Occasionally, perhaps, in particular seasons, when flowers are less numerous 

 than common, this instinct of the bees appears to fail them, or to be over- 

 powered by their desire to collect a sufficient store of honey for their pur- 



i Huber, ii. 82. 



3 Abbe Boisier, quoted in Mills On Bees, 24. 



s Schirach, 45. Huber, i. 479. 





