90 MENTAL EVOLUTION IN MAN. 



" it returns to the nest and brings off in a short time a 

 hundred other wasps ; " and this statement is confirmed by 

 Dujardin. Again, the very able observer, F, Miiller, writes, 

 in one of his letters to Mr. Darwin, that he observed a queen 

 bee depositing her eggs in a nest of 47 cells. In the process 

 she overlooked four of the cells, and when she had filled 

 the other 43, supposing her work to have been completed, 

 prepared to retire. " But as she had overlooked the four 

 cells of the new comb, the workers ran impatiently from this 

 part to the queen, pushing her in an odd manner with their 

 heads, as they did also the other workers they met with. 

 In consequence, the queen began again to go round on the 

 two older combs ; but, as she did not find any cell wanting 

 an egg, she tried to descend, yet everywhere she was pushed 

 back by the workers. This contest lasted rather a long while, 

 till the queen escaped without having completed her work. 

 Thus the workers knew how to advise the queen that some- 

 thing was yet to be done ; but they knew not how to show 

 her where it had to be done." 



According to De Fraviere, Landois, and some other 

 observers, bees have a number of different notes, or tones, 

 whereby they communicate information to one another ; * 

 but there seems to be little doubt that the means chiefly 

 employed are gestures made with the antennae. For example, 

 Huber divided a hive into two chambers by means of a 

 partition : great excitement prevailed in the half of the hive 

 deprived of the queen, and the bees set to work to build royal 

 cells for the creation of a new queen. Huber then divided 

 a hive in exactly the same manner, with the difference only 

 that the screen, or partition, was made of trellis work, through 

 the openings of which the bees on either side could pass 

 their antennae. Under these circumstances the bees in the 

 queenless half of the hive exhibited no disturbance, nor did 

 they construct any royal cells : the bees in the other, or 

 separated, half of the hive were able to inform them that the 

 queen was safe. 



• See Animal Intelligence, p. 158. 



