INSECTA— BEE. 853 



wax after the combs are made ; but they are observed, even in old hives to 

 return in great numbers loaded with such matter, which is deposited in 

 particular cells, and is known by the name of bee-bread. 



When a queen is removed from a hive, the bees do not immediately per- 

 ceive it ; they continue their labors, " watch over their young, and perform 

 all their ordinary occupations. But, in a few hours, agitation ensues ; all 

 appears a scene of tumult in the hive : a singular humming is heard ; the bees 

 desert their young, and rush over the surface of the combs with a delirious 

 impetuosity." They have now evidently discovered that their sovereign is 

 gone; and the rapidity with which the bad news spreads through the hive, 

 to the opposite side of the combs, is very remarkable. On replacing the 

 queen in the hive, tranquillity is almost instantly restored. The bees, it is 

 worthy of notice, recognise the individual person of their own queen. If 

 another be palmed upon them, they seize and surround her, so that she is either 

 suffocated or perishes by hunger; for it is very remarkable, that the workers 

 are never known to attack a queen bee with their stings. If, however, more 

 than eighteen hours have elapsed before the stranger queen be introduced, 

 she has some chance to escape ; the bees at first seize and confine her ; but 

 less rigidly ; and they soon begin to disperse, and at length leave her to 

 reign over a hive in which she was at first treated as a prisoner. If twenty- 

 four hours have elapsed, the stranger will be well received from the first, 

 and at once admitted to the sovereignty of the hive. In short, it appears that 

 the bees, when deprived of their queen, are thrown into great agitation ; that 

 they wait about twenty hours, apparently in hopes of her return ; but that, 

 after this interregnum, the agitation ceases; and they set about supplying 

 their loss by beginning to construct royal cells. It is when they are in this 

 temper, and not sooner, that a stranger queen will be graciously received ; 

 and upon her being presented to them, the royal cells, in whatever state of 

 forwardness they may happen to be, are instantly abandoned, and the larvae 

 destroyed. Reaumur must, therefore, have mistaken the result of his own 

 experiments, when he asserts, that a stranger queen is instantly well receiv- 

 ed, though presented at the moment when the other is withdrawn. He had 

 seen the bees crowding round her at the entrance of the hive, and laying 

 their antennae over her; and this he seems to have taken for caressing. The 

 structure of the hives he employed prevented him from seeing further ; had 

 he used the leaf-hive, or one of similar construction, he would have perceiv- 

 ed that the apparent caresses of the guards were only the prelude of actual 

 imprisonment. 



After the season of swarming, it is well knoAvn, a general massacre of the 

 drones is commenced. Several authors assert that the workers do not sting 

 the drones to death, but merely harass them till they be banished from the 

 hive and perish. M. Huber contrived a glass table, on which he placed 

 several hives, and he was thus able to see distinctly what passed in the bot- 



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