258 TIIK BEE NATION. 



number of working bees rush out and help to attack the 

 foe. 



Against such enemies as the guards are not able to drive 

 away such as the large death's-head hawk moth (Sphinx 

 Alrnpns), which is a great lover of honey, and in many years 

 and places (such as Hungary) much infests the beehives 

 the clever insects manage to protect themselves by fastening 

 up, or rather narrowing, the entrance of the hive with the 

 propolis or propolis-wax, so that only the small bees can 

 pass in and out, while passage is impossible to larger crea- 

 tures. But they also defend themselves against smaller 

 insects in the same way, because a narrow opening is easier 

 to defend than a large. " I possess," says Jesse (" Gleanings 

 in Natural History," vol. i., p. 21), " a regular fortress 

 wall, built out of propolis, which one of my hives had placed 

 in front of its mouth, in order to defend itself better against 

 the wasps. With the help of this wall a smaller number of 

 bees were able to defend the entrance." 



If, however, a time comes when this narrow opening is no 

 longer sufficient for the bees themselves, as, for instance, 

 durinjr a successful foraging, or when the hive is very 

 populous, the formerly useful protection is torn down. 

 Huber observed that a wall built in 1804 against the death's- 

 head hawk moth was destroyed in 1805. In the latter year 

 there were no death's-head moths, nor were any seen during 

 the following. But in the autumn of 1807 a large number 

 again appeared, and the bees at once protected themselves 

 against their enemies. The bulwark was destroyed again in 

 1808. 



It has already been said that animals, such as mice, slugs, 

 etc., that have penetrated into the hive, are slain and then 

 covered with propolis. Such a proceeding, however, was 

 impossible with respect to a snail which, as Reaumur relates 

 (Kirby and Spence, " Entomology," vol. ii., p. 229), took a 

 journey over the sides of a hive lined with glass, its hard 

 shell protecting it against the stings of the bees. The latter 

 were equal to the occasion. They smeared round the edges 

 of the shell with wax and resin, and fastened down the 

 intruder to the wall of the hive in such fashion that he died 

 from hunger or want of air! Sometimes animals which 

 are so large that burying them in propolis is attended with 

 difficulties, or that they would poison the hut in spite of it 



