30 HISTORY AND PHYSIOLOGY. 



and the females, having alighted upon a spot suit- 

 able for the formation of a colony, cut off their 

 own wings, as being no longer of any use to them. 

 (Linnaeus had observed that the females lost their 

 wings a certain period after impregnation.) A 

 domino Hunter clidici, se bombinatrices sub ocu- 

 los in coitu junctos, ut apud muscas mos est, vi- 

 disse. " Aculeus," inquit, " articulo temporis eji- 

 citur, et inter gemina insecta, dorso feminae im- 

 ponitur. Hoc situ aliquandiu manent." In the 

 hornet it is the same. 



If the queen-bee be confined, though amid a 

 seraglio of males, she continues barren. Prior to 

 her flight, (which is preceded by the flight of the 

 drones,) she reconnoitres the exterior of the hive, 

 apparently for the purpose of recognition, and 

 sometimes, after flying a few feet from it, returns 

 to it again : finally she rises aloft in the air, de- 

 scribing in her flight horizontal circles of consi- 

 derable diameter, till she is out of sight. She 

 returns from her aerial excursion in about half 

 an hour, with the most evident marks of fecunda- 

 tion. Excursions are sometimes made for a shorter 

 period, but then she exhibits no sign of having been 

 impregnated. It is curious that Bonner should have 

 remarked those aerial excursions, without suspect- 

 ing their object. " I have often," says he, " seen 

 the young qvieens taking an airing upon the se- 

 cond or third day of their age.' 5 Yet Huish says, 



