BEE. 431 



whose history he was acquainted from the moment they had left 

 the cell. 



The illustrious Linnaeus was of opinion that the queer! bees 

 formed an actual union with the drones ; and he seems even to 

 have suspected that this union proved fatal to the latter. His opL 

 nion on both points has now been verified. For, from many expe- 

 riments made in the course of the year 1787 and 1788, M. Huber 

 found, that the queens are never impregnated as long as they 

 remain in the interior of the hive : if confined within its walls, they 

 continue barren, though amidst the seraglio of males. To receive 

 the approaches of the male, the queen soars high in the air, choos- 

 ing that time of day when the heat has induced the drones to 

 issue from the hive ; and love is now ascertained to be the 

 motive of the only distant journey which a young queen ever 

 makes. From this excursion she returns in the space of about 

 half an hour, with the most evident marks of fecundation ; for, far 

 from being satisfied with the prolific rura of Swammerdam, she ac- 

 tually carries away with her the ipsa verenda of the poor drone, 

 who never lives to see its own offspring, but falls a sacrifice to the 

 momentary bliss of his aerial amour. The most complete proof of 

 these facts is afforded by the detail of a number of concurring ex. 

 periments. It is curious that our north-countryman, Bonner, 

 should have remarked those aerial excursions of the young queens, 

 without ever suspecting their real object, or observing the marks 

 of fecundation upon their return to the hive. The worthy bee- 

 master, as he styles himself in his book, thought they were merely 

 taking an airing. " I have often," says he, " seen young queens 

 take an airing on the second or third day of their age." M. Hu- 

 ber also assigns a cause for the existence of such a great number 

 of males. " As the queen is obliged to traverse the expanse of the 

 atmosphere, he observes, it is requisite the males should be nume- 

 rous, that she may have the chance of meeting some one of them." 

 But the reason why impregnation cannot be accomplished within 

 the hive has not yet been ascertained ; nor is the cause here assign- 

 ed for the great number of males quite satisfactory. 



M. Huber next states the accidental discovery of the very sin- 

 gular and unexpected consequences which follow from retarding 

 the impregnation of the queen-bee beyond the twentieth or 



