PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 4I3 



ages unite to form the swarms. The numbers of which they consist vary 

 much. Reaumur calls 12,000 a moderate swarm; and he mentions one 

 which amounted to more than three times that number (40,000). A swarm 

 seldom or never takes place except when the sun shines, and the air is 

 calm. Sometimes, when every thing seems to prognosticate swarming, a 

 cloud passing over the sun calms the agitation ; and afterwards, upon his 

 shining forth again, the tumult is renewed, keeps augmenting, and the 

 swarm departs.^ On this account the confinement of the queens, before 

 related, is observed to be more protracted in bad weather. 



The longest interval between the swarms is from seven to nine days, 

 which usually is the space that intervenes between the first and the 

 second. The next flies sooner, and the last sometimes departs the day 

 after that which preceded it. Fifteen or eighteen days, in favorable 

 weather, are usually sufficient for throwing the four swarms. The old 

 queen, when she takes flight with the first swarm, leaves plenty of brood 

 in the cells, which soon renew the population.^ 



It is not without example, though it rarely happens, that a swarm con- 

 ducted by the old queen increases so much in the space of three weeks as 

 to send forth a new colony. Being already impregnated, she is in a con- 

 dition to oviposit as soon as there are cells ready to receive her eggs ; and 

 an all-wise Providence has so ordered it, that at this time she lays only 

 such as produce workers. And it is the first employment of her subjects 

 to construct cells for this purpose.^ The young queens that conduct the 

 secondary swarms usually pair the day after they are settled in their new 

 abode ; when the indiflerence with which their subjects have hitherto 

 treated them is exchanged for the usual respect and homage. 



We may suppose that one motive with the bees for following the old 

 queen is their respect for her ; but the reasons that induce them to follow 

 the virgin queens, to whom they not only appear to manifest no attach- 

 ment, but rather the reverse, seem less easy to be assigned. Probably the 

 high temperature of the hive during these times of tumultuous agita- 

 tion may be the principal cause that operates upon them. In a populous 

 hive the thermometer commonly stands between 92° and 97° ; but during 

 the tumult that precedes swarming it rises above 104°, a heat intolerable 

 to these animals.'* This is M. Ruber's opinion. Yet still, though a high 

 temperature will well account for the departure of the swarm from the 

 hive with a virgin queen, if there were really no attachment (as he appears 

 to think), is it not extraordinary, that when this cause no longer operates 

 upon them, they should agglomerate about her, as they always do, be 

 unsettled and agitated without her, and quiet when she is with them ? 

 Is it not reasonable to suppose that the instinct which teaches them 

 what is necessary for the preservation of their society, — at the same time 

 that it shows them that without a queen that society cannot be preserv- 

 ed, — impels them in every case to the mode of treating her which will 

 most effectually influence her conduct, and give it that direction which is 

 most beneficial to the community ? 



Yet, with respect to the treatment of queens, instinct does not invaria- 



' Bees are generally thought to foresee the state of the weather: but they are not always 

 right in their prognostics ; for Reaumur witnessed a swarm, which after leaving the hive 

 at half-past one o'clock were overtaken by a very heavy shower at three. 



* Huber, i. 271. 3 ibid. i. 305. ♦ Ibid. i. 280. 



35* 



