264 NATURALIST'S CABINET. 



Neuter bees Drones Mutual attachment. 



line the walls of its cell with a silken tapestry, in 

 which it undergoes its last transformation. When 

 it first crawls forth a winged insect, it is very 

 weak and inactive, but in the course of a few 

 hours it acquires strength enough to fly off to its 

 labour. Qn its emerging from the cell, the offi- 

 cious bees flock round it, and lick up its moisture 

 with their tongues. One party bring honey for 

 it to feed upon; and another is employed iri 

 cleansing the cell, and carrying out the filth to 

 prepare this for a new inhabitant. 



The neuter bees in a hive amount to the num- 

 ber of sixteen or eighteen thousand; these are 

 armed with stings. The drones are unarmed, 

 and are always killed by the neuters about the 

 month of September. 



There is so great a degree of attachment sub- 

 si.sting between the working bees and their queen 

 that, if by any accident she be destroyed, the la- 

 bours of the communitv are at an end, and the 



*/ 



rest of the animals leave their hive and disperse. 

 If, however, another queen be given them, joy 

 springs up, and they crowd around her, and soon 

 again apply to their operations. Even the pros- 

 pect of seeing a queen will support them : this 

 has been proved by giving to a hive that had lost 

 its own queen the chrysalis of another. If a queen 

 bee be taken from a hive and kept apart from 

 the working bees, she will refuse to eat, and in 

 the course of four or five days, will die of hunger. 

 The least degree of cold benumbs these insects; 



