THE BISE-MOTH. 469 



In the Ohio Cultioatur for 1849, page 185, Micajah T. 

 Johnson says: — " One thing is certain — if bees, from any 

 cause, should lose their queen, and not have the means in 

 their power of raising another, the miller and the- worms 

 soon take possession. I believe no hioe is destroyed by worms 

 while an efficient queen remains in it." 



This seems to be the earliest published notice of this im- 

 portant fact by any American observer. 



It is certain that a queenless hive seldom maintains a 

 guard at the entrance after night, and does not fill the air 

 with the pleasant voice of happy industry. Even to our 

 dull ears, the difference between the hum of a prosperous 

 hive and the unhappy note of a despairing one is often 

 sufficiently obvious ; may it not be even more so to the 

 acute senses of the provident mother-moth? 



Her unerring sagacity resembles the instinct by which 

 birds that prey upon carrion, single out from the herd a 

 diseased animal, hovering over its head with their dismal 

 croakings, or sitting in ill-omened flocks on the surround- 

 ing trees, watching it as its life ebbs away, and snapping 

 their blood-thirsty beaks, impatient to tear out its eyes, 

 just glazing in death, and banquet on its flesh, still warm 

 with the blood of life. Let any fatal accident befall an 

 animal, and how soon will you see them, — 



" First a speck and then a Vulture," 



speeding, from all quarters of the heavens, on their eager 

 flight to their destined prey, when only a short time before 

 not one could be perceived. 



"When a colony becomes hopelessly queenless, even should 

 the bees retain their wonted zeal in gathering stores and 

 defending themselves against the moth, they must as cer- 

 tainly perish as a carcass must decay, even if it is not 

 assailed by filthy flies and ravenous worms. Occasion- 

 ^y, after the death of the bees, large stores of honey are 



