7.2 NATURAL HISTORY 



the other queens having small oviducts and empty, or at least no eggs 

 fit for laying 1 ; and I found what I did not expect, viz. that some of the 

 labourers, even the smallest, had their oviducts full of eggs, and others 

 with none. This observation led to the following experiments. I re- 

 moved the queen after she had bred some labourers and males, and also 

 every maggot and egg that lay on the comb : this being done, I found, 

 in about a week after, dabs of farina with eggs and maggots : these I 

 allowed to remain till about the 8th of August, and upon examination 

 I only found six females and seven males, one of which had just come 

 forth, which males I think were smaller than common. There were no 

 queens bred by the labourers, and I observed that they did not continue 

 the hive equally with those whose queens were left in the hive. There 

 always became fewer and fewer of them till the whole hive was deserted, 

 probably about the time the queen would have begun to breed young 

 queens. This experiment I have repeated, and with the same 

 success. 



Of their Copulation. — On the 1st of August, 1789, having before 

 taken a hive with the whole bees and put them under a large glass 

 shade, they went out and into their hives ; but one day I saw a large 

 bee on one of the sides of the shade, and another, as it were, standing 

 on its tail with its four feet on the back of the other. Suspecting they 

 were in the act of copidation, I caught them both, and immediately 

 immersed them into spirits 2 . The male did not let go his hold, and they 

 both died in this position. I found the two holders fast on the sides of 

 the beginning of the vagina. The sting of the female was, as it were, 

 projecting between the two : this was at a period when breeding was 

 over ; for in this hive there were neither maggots nor eggs, and only a 

 few chrysalises, so that copulation coidd answer no good purpose for 

 this season, therefore only fitting them for the next. As we never find 

 them copulating abroad like many other insects, it is reasonable to 

 suppose that they copulate at home, and more especially, as they will 

 by this means keep to their own family in their propagation. 



About the latter end of August the humble-bees are becoming indolent 

 or inactive, more especially the males. This indolence increases through 

 the month of September, and some way into October, if the weather is 

 tolerable ; but by the middle of October there are hardly any to be seen. 

 The males are now many more in number than the labourers, about eight 

 or ten to one. On the 29th of August I caught thirty bees, and only 

 one of them was a labourer. The males about this period get into large 

 flowers, probably for food, such as the flower of the hollyhock ; but not 



1 [Hunt. Prep. No. 2615.] 2 [Hunt. Prep. No. 2852.] 



