18 HISTORY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 



the young queens to fly away at the instant they 

 are liberated. 



The queen is a good deal harassed by the other 

 bees, on her liberation. This has been attributed 

 to their wishing to impel her to go off with a 

 swarm as soon as possible, but this notion is 

 probably erroneous ; it certainly is so if Huber be 

 correct, in saying that the swarms are always 

 accompanied by the older queens. The queen 

 has the power of instantly putting a stop to their 

 worrying, by uttering a peculiar noise, which has 

 been called the voice of sovereignty. Bonner how- 

 ever declares that he never could observe in the 

 queen anything like an exercise of sovereignty. 

 But Huber's statement was not founded upon a 

 solitary instance ; he heard the sound on various 

 occasions, and witnessed the striking effect which 

 it always produced. On one occasion, a queen 

 having escaped the vigilance of her guards and 

 sprung from the cell, was, on her approach to the 

 royal embryos, pulled, bitten and chased by the 

 other bees. But standing with her thorax against 

 a comb and crossing her wings upon her back, 

 keeping them in motion, but not unfolding them, 

 she emitted a particular sound, when the bees 

 became, as it were, paralysed and remained motion- 

 less. Taking advantage of this dread, she rushed 

 to the royal cells ; but the sound having ceased as 



