28 THE BEE AS AN INSECT. [Ch. i. 



are much more prolonged during the repose of winter 

 than in the wear and tear of the gathering season. Von 

 Berlepsch describes three careful sets of experiments 

 which he carried out for the purpose of attaining more 

 exact knowledge on this point. In one of these he 

 introduced an Italian queen into an ordinary stock at 

 the beginning of October when all the old brood was 

 hatched ; he then found as a result that the last of the 

 common bees had disappeared at the end of May, so 

 that some of them for a certainty lived eight months, 

 and possibly more, though it seems most probable that 

 the last to die were also the latest born. In another 

 case, the queen having died at the commencement of 

 winter, he strictly isolated the hive, and, the season 

 being exceptionally mild, he found that some of the bees 

 continued alive for ten and a half months. His remain- 

 ing experiment bore upon the summer term of existence, 

 and it resulted in exhibiting six weeks as the avej-age, and 

 three months as the outside possible period of lifetime. 

 Dzierzon points out the difference produced by the cha- 

 racter of a bee's employment. To have to fly a long 

 distance to its pasturage will soon wear it out, and so 

 will knocking its wings against sharp leaves, as is the 

 case with the bluebottle, the thick corn amid which this 

 plant grows rendering the effect very much worse. But 

 if, he adds, they pass the summer in entire repose, as a 

 hive without a queen may do, then, if well fed, their 

 lives may be prolonged for a year or even more. 



