240 



BEES OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



which our forefathers applied to all the uses for which sugar is 

 now substituted, and at tlie same time recollect even the present 

 value of the wax, we shall arrive at a considerable estimate of 

 the benefits derived from these industrious insects. 



In the entire range of the history of bees, nothing is to be met 

 with M^hich excites our astonishment so greatly as the manner 

 in which the Hive-bee is said to possess the power of replacing 

 the loss of their queen ; indeed, so contrary is this to all our 

 experience, that without a personal confirmation of so remark- 

 able a phsenomenon, some feeling of incredulity will force itself 

 upon the mind, and suggest the possibility of mistaken observa- 

 tion. If the only thing necessary to produce diff'erence of sex 

 is diflPerence of aliment, there must be some misconception or 

 error in speaking of eggs of males, workers, and females. No 

 diff^erence is to be observed in the food of the solitary species of 

 Ilymenoptera; the larvae of the sexes of the genus Pompilus feed 

 upon spiders, Diptera, or caterpillars : one undeviating course 

 is to be observed : the larvse of both sexes of Melittobia alike 

 feed on that of AntJwphora ; the eggs deposited nearest to the 

 entrance of a burrow invariably produce males, which are the 

 first which come forth : this does not appear to be dependent 

 either upon the quality or quantity of food, but upon a pre- 

 existent organization existing in the egg itself. If the phseno* 

 menon above alluded to be a deviation from the laws which our 

 observations have led us to adopt, it is then a circumstance 

 arising from laws and principles which are too inscrutable for the 

 limited powers of perception with which we are endowed. 



Further observations on the wonders of the hive must be ab- 

 stained from, — a mere sketch would fill a volume, and it is only 

 necessary to call attention to the list of illustrious names of 

 writers on the hive and its inhabitants, given by Mr. J. 0. West- 

 wood in the second volume of his admirable Introduction to the 

 Classification of Insects. 



It might be well to record a fact in confirmation of Huber's 

 opinion, that the female, or queen, is impregnated in the open 

 air. A person who kept bees was one day walking in his 

 garden, when suddenly he saw a couple of bees fall to the ground 

 on the pathway; these he observed were in connexion; having 

 secured them in this condition, he forwarded them to me ; they 

 were separated, but the male was dead. The young queen was 

 of a pale fuscous colour, yellow beneath, the legs also being pale 

 yellow; she was scarcely larger than an ordinary working bee. 



There appears to be some reason for believing that the hive- 

 bee of this coimtry has from the remotest ages been scattered 

 over most parts of the old world; in the present day it is a 

 cosmopolitan. 



