14 THE LORE OF THE HONEY-BEE 



On the life-history of the honey-bee Pliny 

 wrote voluminously. He tells us of a nation of 

 industrious creatures ruled over by a king, dis- 

 tinguished by a white spot on his forehead like a 

 diadem. These king-bees were of three sorts — 

 red, black, and mottled ; but the red were superior 

 to all the rest. He appears to accept, though 

 guardedly, the old legend that sexual intercourse 

 among bees was divinely abrogated in favour of a 

 system of procreation originating in the flowers. 

 He mentions a current belief — which must have 

 been the boldest of heresies at the time — that the 

 king-bee is the only male, all the rest being 

 females. The existence of the drones he explains 

 away very ingeniously. " They would seem," he 

 says, " to be a kind of imperfect bee, formed the 

 very last of all; the expiring effort, as it were, of 

 worn-out and exhausted old age, a late and tardy 

 offspring." 



The discipline in the hives was, according to 

 Pliny, a very rigid affair. Early in the morning 

 the whole population was awakened by one bee 

 sounding a clarion. The day's work was carried 

 through on strict military lines, and at evening the 

 king's bugler was again to be observed flying 

 about the hive, uttering the same shrill fanfaronade 

 by which the colony was roused at daybreak. 

 After this note was heard, all work ceased for the 

 day, and the hive became immediately silent. 



His book abounds in curious details as to hive- 



