376 



THE AMERICAN 



^E 



JOURNAL. 



sally believed, both by ancients and 

 moderns, that bees, like other ani- 

 mals, propagate by an actual inter- 

 course of the male and female, though 

 it never could be perceived by the 

 most attentive observers. Pliny re- 

 marks, that apium coitus visus est nun- 

 guam; and even the indefatigable 

 Keaumur, notwithstanding the many 

 minute researches and experiments 

 he made concerning every part of the 

 economy of bees, and though he rep- 

 resents the mother, or queen-bee, as a 

 perfect Messalina, could never detect 

 an actual intercourse. From this 

 singular circumstance, Miraldi, in his 

 observations upon bees, conjectured 

 that the eggs of bees, like those of 

 fishes, were impregnated after they 

 were deposited in the cells by the 

 mother. He was further confirmed in 

 this opinion by uniformly observing 

 that a whitish liquid substance sur- 

 rounded each egg which turned out to 

 be fertile ; but that those eggs round 

 which no substance was to be found, 

 were always barren. The working 

 bees, or those which collect from 

 flowers the materials of wax, have 

 generally been considered as belong- 

 mg to neither sex. But Mr. Schirach, 

 a German naturalist, in his " History 

 of the Queen of the Bees," maintains 

 that all the common bees are females 

 in a disguised or barren state ; that 

 the organs which distinguish the sex, 

 and particularly the ovaria, are either 

 obliterated, or, on account of their 

 minuteness, have not hitherto been 

 discovered ; that, in the early period 

 of its existence, every one of these 

 bees is capable of becoming a queen- 

 bee, if the community choose to nurse 

 it in a certain manner, and to raise it 

 to that distinguished rank ; and that 

 the queen-bee lays only two kinds of 

 eggs, namely, those that are to pro- 

 duce drones or males, and those from 

 which the working bees are to proceed. 



The conjecture of Maraldi concern- 

 ing the impregnation of the eggs after 

 they are deposited in the cells, as well 

 as the observations of Mr. Schirach 

 concerning the sex of the working 

 bees, have been completely verified 

 by the experiments of Mr. Debraw. 

 Both Maraldi and Reaumur had long 

 ago discovered that in every hive, be- 

 side the large drones, there are males 

 or drones as small as the working 

 bees. By means of glass-hires, Mr. 

 Debraw observed that the queen -bee 

 begins to deposit her eggs in the cells 

 on the fourth or fifth day after the 

 bees begin to work. On the first or 

 second day after the eggs are placed 

 in the cells, he perceived several bees 

 sinking the posterior parts of their 

 bodies into each cell, where they con- 

 tinued but a short time. After they 

 had retired, he saw plainly with the 

 naked eye a small quantity of whitish 

 liquid left in the bottom of each cell 

 that contained an egg. The next day 

 he found that this liquid was absorbed 

 into the egg, which, on the fourth 

 day, is hatched. When the worms 

 escape from the eggs, they are fed for 

 eight or ten days with honey by the 

 working bees. After that period they 

 shut up the mouths of the cells, where 

 the worms continue inclosed for ten 

 days more, during which time they 



J tu ■ J M* 'i transforma- 



undergo their differenl;, 



**?"t^- ■ A „ ^t" ■ Debraw, 



"I immersed," says Mr.'.tigjj tj,ey 

 " all the bees in water ; and, ^'.'jjtate I 

 appeared to be in a senseless .. qj ^'g. 

 gently pressed every one of the ^jg. 

 tween my fingers, in order to^i.^s 

 tinguish those armed with stin^v 

 from those that had none, which lasi 

 I might suspect to be males. Of these 

 I found 67, exactly of the size of com- 

 mon bees, yielding a little whitish 

 liquor on being pressed between the 

 fingers. I killed every one, and re- 

 placed the colony in a glass hive, 

 where they immediately applied again 

 to the work of making cells ; and on 

 the fourth or fifth day, very early in 

 the morning, I had the pleasure to see 

 the queen-bee depositing her eggs in 

 those cells, which she did by placing 

 the posterior part of her body in each 

 of them. I continued to watch most 

 part of the ensuing days, but could 

 discover nothing of what I had seen 

 before. The eggs, after the fourth 

 day, instead of changing in the man- 

 ner of caterpillars, were found in the 

 same state they were in the first day." 

 The next day about noon, the whole 

 colony forsook the hive, probably be- 

 cause the animals perceived that, 

 without the assistance of males, they 

 were unqualided to multiply their 

 species. To show the necessity of the 

 eggs being fecundated by the male 

 influence, Mr. Debraw relates an ex- 

 periment still more decisive. 



" I took," says he, " the brood-comb 

 which, as I observed before, had not 

 been impregnated ; I divided it into 

 two parts ; one I placed under a glass 

 bell. No. 1, with honeycomb for the 

 bees' food ; I took care to leave a 

 queen, but no drones, among the com- 

 mon bees I confined in it. The other 

 piece of brood-comb I placed under 

 another glass bell, No. 2, with a few 

 drones, a queen, and a number of 

 common bees proportioned to the size 

 of the glass. The result was, that in 

 the glass No. 1 no impregnation hap- 

 pened ; the eggs remained in the same 

 slate they were in w hen put into the 

 glass; and, upon giving the bees their 

 liberty on the seventh day, they all 

 flew away, as was found to be the 

 case in the former experiment ; where- 

 as in the glass No. 2, 1 saw the very 

 day after the bees had been put under 

 it, the impregnation of the eg^s by 

 the drones in every cell containing 

 eggs ; the bees did not leave their 

 hive on receiving their liberty ; and 

 in tlie course of 20 days, every egg un- 

 derwent all the above mentioned 

 necessary changes, and formed a 

 pretty numerous young colony in 

 whicli I was not a little startled to 

 find ttto queens." 



The appearance of a new queen in a 

 hive where there was no large or royal 

 cell, made Mr. Debraw conjecture 

 that the bees are capable, by some 

 particular means, of transforming a 

 common subject into a queen. To 

 ascertain the truth of this conjecture, 

 he provided himself with four glass 

 hives, into each of which he put a 

 piece of brood-comb taken from an 

 old hive. These pieces of brood- 

 comb contained eggs, worms and 

 nymphs, in each hive he confined a 



sufficient number of common bees, 

 and some drones or males, but took 

 care that there should be no queen. 



" The bees," Mr. Debraw remarks, 

 " finding themselves without a queen, 

 made a strange buzzing noise, which 

 lasted nearly two days, at the end of 

 which they settled, and betook them- 

 selves to work. On the fourth day I 

 perceived in each hive the beginning 

 of a royal cell, a certain indication that 

 Se of the inclosed toomis would soon be 

 '^'werted into a queen. The construc- 

 ^9^- of the royal cell being nearly ac- 

 "O'^-ilished, 1 ventured to leave an 

 comp,^g for the bees to get out, and 

 openu>ij^(; they returned as regularly 

 ?h ^^ ^^ common hives, and 

 as tney .g inclination to leave their 



h n t''^- ^"*' to be brief, at the 

 naDiiauoi|g^yg J observed four young 

 end or ^"t^-ng the new progeny." 

 queens ahice^xperiments of Mr. De- 

 J.0 mese Q[jjgg[g^ that the queen- 

 braw It was j^e eggs which she de- 

 bee, besides j.oyjji %ei,g^ njigtit like, 

 posits in tnt^ j.Qyjji Qj. female eggs 

 wise have lai.,Q cells; and that the 

 in the comm^.eoQjijso successfully 

 pieces of broGg experiments for the 

 employed in h ^ ggn, had always 

 production ot.omain one of these 

 happened to >ther one of the worms 

 royal eggs, or ra^i^gm. But this ob- 

 proceeding from u^^rds removed by 

 jection was afterv experiments, the 

 many other accuratt uniformly the 

 results of which w^^^^g f^ Mrf De- 

 same ; and the ob]e,ij,y ^dmit that, 

 braw's discovery can^t^n^s in need of 

 when the community f,jees possess the 

 a queen the working^^jQ^ subject to 



power of raising a CO every worm of 

 the throne ; and that^^g^f ^ certain 

 thehiveis capable, \ of becoming 

 course of managemeieVous progeny. 

 Uie mother of a nun ggems to be 

 This metamorphosis ^y a peculiar 

 chiefly accomplished ^administered 

 nourishment carefull>,j.]jj,j„ yjggg j^y 

 to the worm by the w^ti^gr^mknown 

 which, and perhaps by,ans, the germs 

 means, the fema e oilg^ejj i„ ^^^ guj. 

 ot which previously ex J^^^ ajl ^^^^^ 



bryo, are expanded, ^^ gj^g t^at so 

 difference^ in lorm a,j ^j^g g^een 

 remarkably distingur j^j.g produced, 

 from the working-bees ^^^^i' ^.^^^^_ 



It IS always a fortigg ^^^^^.^^ ^i 

 stance when discovergiy ^^ ^,.^^5, 

 first seem calculated so.^,ejy„7jrned 

 curiosity, are capable of ^ jir. De- 

 to the advantage of societ^^ .ailed to 

 braw, accordingly, has uftt may be 

 point out the advantagefgg into the 

 derived from his resea/ggg. By his 

 economy and nature c'an easy mode 

 discovery we are taujt end, swarms 

 of multiplying, witlje useful insects, 

 or new colonies of Jijjg new art, Mr. 



The practice 013, has already ex- 

 Schirach informs h Upper Lusatia, 

 tended itself throiihemia, Bavaria, 

 the Palatinate, ' in some of these 

 Silesia and Polaudted the attention, 

 countries it has exconage of govern- 

 and acquired the Ppress of Russia, 

 ment. The late E of a single arti- 

 who never lost signdustry, and, of 

 cle by which thfs of her subjects 

 course, the happKl, sent a proper 

 could be augmeBautzen, to be in- 

 person to Kleiiew, important art. 

 instructed in thii 



