126 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 1 



this fight, why has there been excitement? 

 Ought not the bees to have been just as 

 much excited had they been removed and re- 

 placed in their own hive? They were roused 

 to hostility because they knew they were 

 among aliens. Certainly; but how did they 

 happen to discover they were among aliens? 

 If not by smell, is Mr. Miller prepared to 

 tell us that it was by sight? And if not by 

 sight, will he tell us by which of the other 

 senses the bees recognized their neighbors? 



The scent of a queen is certainly affected 

 by foreign odors. I remember once remov- 

 ing a young queen from a nucleus, and in- 

 troducing her by the direct method to a 

 queenless colony. She remained on the comb 

 for a little while, and then the bees prepar- 

 ed to ball her. I recaged her, and let her 

 crawl again to the combs of the former nu- 

 cleus; but before I could rescue her she was 

 stung to death. Let Mr. Miller try this ex- 

 periment some day: Take a que^n from her 

 hive and cage her in another colony for an 

 hour. After that, let htr loose on her own 

 combs, as he would had she been caged in 

 the former hive for that space of time. I 

 advise him, however, not to use a valuable 

 queen for the experiment. Indeed, the ad- 

 vice has been well given, not even to let the 

 operator's fingers touch a queen's body when 

 clipping her. 



But the plan of caging that Mr. Miller 

 tries to combat in his article is in itself a 

 proof of the important part scent plays in 

 queen-introcuction. The fact that queens 

 caged for a ^uffi iently long time to acquire 

 thoroughly the scent of a colony, will almost 

 invariably be accepted, while others, not so 

 treated, will just as frequently be killed, is 

 certainly strong evidence along this line. I 

 have used the direct-introduction plan as 

 outlined by Mr. Miller (it is almost the same 

 as the one mentioned by Mr. Langstroth in 

 " The Honey-bee "), introducing some scores 

 of queens by it on a certain occasion in Ja- 

 maica. But, although it^worked fairly well 

 with laying queens, yet it was not quite as 

 good as the candy plan as then practiced, 

 and was far inferior to our present method. 

 In one case the queen enters, a stranger, 

 and her acceptance depends upon her good 

 behavior, and upon how much of the "fight" 

 has been taken out of the bees by smoke ; 

 while in the other she has already become a 

 member of the colony. 



Mr. Miller has only to test the caging 

 method to find out that it is the safest by 

 which queens can be given to fertile-worker 

 colonies. Cage a queen in such a colony for 

 a few days ; she acquires the scent and is 

 accepted before she is released. Last sea- 

 son we kept a few of these colonies for Dr. 

 Phillips to experiment with. They were so 

 alive with laying workers that he gathered 

 quite a number taken in the act of laying. 

 As soon as he was through with his experi- 

 ments we caged and introduced virgins, 

 which were duly accepted and fertilized. 

 Mr. Miller ought to try a plan before he 

 condemns it. 



Dr. Phillips is a zoologist, and, from a 



scientific standpoint, one of the best author- 

 ities of bees in this country. Last summer, 

 while introducing a lot of newly hatched 

 virgins to baby nuclei, I was about to take 

 one in my fingers, when he called to me : 



"No, George, don't handle them. Let 

 them run in direct from the nurseries." 



He was right, for even the miniature nu- 

 clei seemed to resent the foreign odor thus 

 transmitted. 



With the abundant practical evidences 

 that exist, and with the support of men of 

 Dr. Phillips' caliber, I think the orthodox 

 belief is still tenable. 



I may remark, in conclusion, that men 

 who make a business of raising queens must 

 have something tangible to work with. 

 Certain peculiar incidents may occur at 

 times which seem to upset established rules, 

 and induce us to believe that conclusions 

 which have been drawn after much patient 

 labor and careful thought are without foun- 

 dation. But let us learn to distinguish 

 between the exceptions and the rule. The 

 present methods of queen - introduction, 

 whether practiced as the editor mentioned 

 in the article referred to or not, are based 

 largely upon the sense of smell, and they 

 give satisfaction. Even the plan which Mr. 

 Miller advocates and projects in proof of 

 his theory owes its success, perhaps more 

 largely than he recognizes, to the fact that 

 the odor of queen and bees is affected by 

 the smoke (usually tobacco smoke) which 

 forms so important a part in this particular 

 method of introduction. If, however, ninety- 

 nine per cent of us are following an erro- 

 neous theory, we are open to conviction ; 

 but the burden of proof lies with Mr. Miller. 

 Geo. W. Phillips. 



Denison Univ., Granville, 0. 



THE WINGS OF THE BEE. 

 III. — The Development of the Wing. 



BY E. F. PHILLIPS, PH.D. 



The two first articles of this series dealt 

 with the adult wings of the bee and the ab- 

 normalities which have been observed in the 

 venation We will now take up briefly the 

 development of the wings during the growth 

 of the insect from the egg. Possibly a more 

 natural method of arrangement would be to 

 study the development first; but this is less 

 desirable because of the fact that a knowl- 

 edge of the final result is necessary to ap- 

 preciate fully the things found in the earlier 

 stages. 



The first indication of wings to be found 

 in the developing bee is the presence of 

 folds in the body-covering on the upper side 

 of the meso and meta thoracic segments of 

 a young larva. On account of its habits of 

 life the larva needs neither wings nor legs; 

 but both of these begin to develop during 

 this stage and in a very similar manner. A 

 vesicle, or pouch, of the body-covering is 

 formed, which is to be a wing; but since th(; 



