PHYSIOLOGY. 283 



workers, and were no doubt led thereby to con- 

 jecture that they dispatched the queens with their 

 stings. 



From what has been said of the fatal conse- 

 quence to the bee itself when it makes use of its 

 sting for the annoyance of man and other animals, 

 it might be supposed that the darting of this 

 weapon by one bee into the body of another, 

 might cause the death of both ; but this is is not 

 usually the case, otherwise there would be a great 

 mortality amongst them, when the persecution of 

 the drones takes place. HUBER contrived, by pla- 

 cing several of his hives upon a glass table, to wit- 

 ness this scene of massacre ; on which occasion the 

 bees thrust their stings so deeply into the bodies 

 of the drones, (generally between the segments of 

 the abdomen,) as to be obliged to turn upon them- 

 selves, as upon a pivot, before they could extricate 

 them ; but by so doing they succeeded, as do the 

 queens also in their combats with each other. 

 Instances are related, of combats between workers 

 proving mutually destructive, from the victors 

 being unable to extricate their stings from the 

 wounds they have inflicted. MR. HUNTER saw 

 an instance of this : the bee was stung in the 

 mouth ; and he saw it running about afterwards, 

 with the sting and its appurtenances adherent in 

 the wound. 



Indeed by allowing the bee to draw out her 



