BEE 



about noon ; all the bees left llicir hive, and were fcen at- 

 tempting to get into a neighbouring one, on the ftool of 

 which the queen bee was found dtad, being, no doubt, fla;n 

 in an engaf^cment. This event Mr. Debraw fiippofcs to 

 have arifcu "from the defire of the bees to perpetuate their 

 fpccios, to the concurrence of which the males were neccffsi-y, 

 and that this confidcration alone induced them to defert their 

 habitation where no males where left, and to fix their reiidence 

 in a new one, where there was a (lock of them. 



To be more fully fatisfied in this refpeft, Mr. Debraw 

 took the brood comb which had been impregnated, and di- 

 vided it into two parts ; one of which he placed under a bell 

 glafs with honey-comb, for the food of the bees, taking 

 care to leave a queen, but no drones among the bees con- 

 fined in it ; the other piece of bread-comb, he placed in an- 

 other bell glafs with a few drones, a queen, and propor- 

 tionable number of common bees. The refult was, th;it in 

 the piece put into the firft glafs there was no impregivation, 

 the eggs remaining in the fame ftate as they were when lirft 

 placed'^in it, and on giving the bees their liberty on the 

 feventh day they all flew away ; whereas in the other glafs, 

 whicli contained the fccond piece of hrood-comb, the very 

 day after the bees had been put into it,^ the eggs were im- 

 pregnated by the drones, and the bfts did not fhew the Icaft 

 incUnation to abandon their new habitation when the glafs 

 was left open to allow them to efcapc. 



Such are briefly the different opinions ofthofe experienced 

 obfervers of the bee, Reaumur, Maraldi, Schirach, and De- 

 braw, whofe feveral ideas founded, as it mult appear, upon 

 the moll laborious, indefatigable, ai^d miimte invcjligation, 

 have met with tnany advocates. On a fubject of this mtercft 

 we ought net to aifume any opinion hallily, or in an affair fo 

 myfterious, obtrude our own withort a confidcrable degree of 

 caution. Some writers of no mean celebrity have treated, 

 fmce the time of thefe obfervers, upon the fame topic, 

 whofe remarks deferve to be impartially cowfidered. To the 

 foreo-oing obfervations, and fome others made by Sehiraeh 

 in p"articular, the late Mr. Hunter has replied, in a paper 

 written by him exprelsly on bees, and inferted in the Phi- 

 lofophieal Tranfattions for 1792, of which we are to avail 

 ourfelves. The experiments performed by Sehiraeh, Mr. 

 Hunter is dlfpofed to think inaccurate, and the refult in- 

 ferred from them- of courfe u.uvoithy of credit : how far the 

 arguments of the latter are likely to refute the obfervations 

 of Sehiraeh, remains to be decided, wlien we have confidcred 

 them in his own words. The criticifms of this anatomiil 

 are introdiiced to notice, in fpeaking of the queen bee. 

 " The queen bee, as fne is termed, (fays Mr. Hunter) has 

 excited more curiufity than ail the others, although much 

 more belongs to tlic labourers. From the number ot thefe, 

 and from their expofing themfelves, they have their hiflory 

 much better made out ; but as there is only one quten, and 

 Jhe fcarcely ever feen, it being only the efieft of her labour 

 we can com.e at, an opportuviity has been givciAto the inge- 

 nuity ofconjcfmre, and more has been faid than can well be 

 proved. She is allowed to be bred in the common way, 

 only there is a peculiar cell for her in her firil ftage, and 

 Reaumur fsys, " her food is different when in the maggot 

 ftate ;" but there is probably but one queen, avid that the 

 whole mi^ht not depend on one life, it is aflkrted that the 

 labourers Inve a power of forming a common maggot into a 

 queen. If authors had given this as an opinion only, we 

 might have pafled it over as improbable, but they have en- 

 deavoured to prove it by experiments, which require to be 

 examined ; and for that purpofe I fliall give what they fay 

 on that head, with my remarks upon it." 



Abllradls from Sehiraeh. — " In twelve wooden boxes 



BEE 



were placed twflve pieces of the comb; in each box wa« fluit 

 up a handful of working bees. Knowing that when bees 

 are forming a queen, they fliould be co'-if.ncd, the boxes were 

 kept ftiut for two days. When examined at the end of that 

 period," (fix boxes only were opened) " in all of them 

 royal cells were begun, one, two, or three in each, all of 

 thefe containing a maggot four days old. In four days, the 

 other fix boxes were opened, and royal cells were found in 

 each, containing maggots five days old, furrounded by a large 

 provifion of jelly, and one of thefe maggots, examined in the 

 microfcope, in every refpeft refembltd a working bee." 



" This experiment was repeated, and the maggots fele£led 

 to be made queens were three days old ; ?.nd in fcventcen 

 days there were found in twelve boxes fifteen lively hand- 

 fome queens. Thefe experiments were made in May, and 

 the bees were allowed to work great part of the fummer. 

 The bees were examined one by one, but no drone could be 

 difcovered, and yet the queens were impregnated, and laid 

 their eggs." [Here is a wonder! queens laying eggs, 

 (which we mufi: fuppofe Mr. Sehiraeh meant we (hould be- 

 lieve) and they hatched without the influence of the male.] 

 " The above experiment vvas repeated witii pieces of comb, 

 containing eggs only, in fix box^s, but no preparation was 

 mace towards producing a queen." 



" The experiment of producing a queen bee from a mag- 

 got was repeated every month of the year, even in Novem- 

 ber." 



" A maggot of three days old was procured from a friend 

 enclofed in an ordinaiy cell, and Ihut up with a piece of 

 comb containing eggs and maggots. That, three days old, 

 was formed into a queen, and all the other maggots and eggs 

 were dellroyed." 



" In above a hundred experiments a queen bee has been 

 formed from maggots three days old [The working bees, as 

 all females, although the ovaria is too fmall for examination," 

 &c. VidePhih Tranf.] 



Mr. Hunter next proceeds to fpeak of another author who 

 repeated the experiments of Sehiraeh. " Wilhelmi (he"fays) 

 obferves that a queen cell, which is made while the bees are 

 fliut up, is formed by breaking down three common cells 

 into one, when the fides are repaired." — " A young queen 

 was put into a hive which had been previoufly afcertained to 

 contain no drones, and whofe queen was removed, and yet 

 the youngk queen laid eggs. [Probable.] In repeating 

 Mr. Schirach's experiment, he (hut up four pieces of comb 

 with one maggot in each : after two days the maggc ts were 

 all dead, and the bees had defifted from labour. [There is 

 no myllery in this : but did they hatch ?] — " A piece of 

 comb, from whicii all the eggs and maggots had been re- 

 moved, was fiiut up with fome honey, and a ctrtain number 

 of workeis : in a ihort time they became very bufy, and 

 upon the evening of the fecond day 300 eggs were found in 

 the cells. [This would fiiow that labourers can be changed 

 into queens at will, and that neither they nor their eggs re- 

 quire to be impregnated ; if this was the cafe, there would 

 be no occauon for all the pufli in making a queen or a male.] 

 He repeated this experiment with the fame rtfuit, and the 

 bees were left to themltlves: they placed the q'jeen maggots 

 in the queen cells newly conllrucied, and others in male cells, 

 the reft were left U!;d!fturbed. He again took two pieces of 

 comb, which contained neither eggs nor maggots, and (hut 

 them up with a certain number of workers, and carried the 

 box into a ftove ; next evening one of the pieces of comb con- 

 tained feveral eggs, and the beginning of a royal cell was 

 empty." 



i3cfides thefe (hort obfervations contained in the brackets, 

 Mr. Hunter tells us he has his doubts refpccling the whole 



of 



