64 VALUE OF THE LIFE OF THE QUEEN. 



running about in all directions, as if in search of some par- 

 ticular object, and apparently disposed to quarrel amongst 

 themselves, on account of some calamity which had befallen 

 them. In not a single instance, has it ever come under our 

 experience, that the bees, on the loss of their queen, did not 

 gradually dwindle away, and ultimately leave the hive ; and, 

 further, no doubt whatever can exist, that the desertion of a 

 hive by the bees, which so frequently takes place, and the 

 cause of which appears so difficult to determine, arises in the 

 majority of cases from the death of the queen. It is gene- 

 rally attributed to the dearth of provisions, or, in certain 

 parts of England, to the influence of some malignant witch, 

 who has enticed the bees away, as an act of spite towards 

 the owner, and it must be acknowledged that the death of 

 a queen is a circumstance, which takes place so secretly, 

 and, perhaps, so unexpectedly, that no opportunity presents 

 itself of repairing the loss, or instituting those measures 

 which might lead to the salvation of the bees. The queen 

 bee appears on all occasions to be fully conscious of her ex- 

 treme importance and value to the community, over which 

 she reigns, as she never places her life in jeopardy, nor 

 exposes herself to those dangers, by which she would be 

 surrounded, were she to be addicted to those amorous 

 excursions, which are so circumstantially described by 

 Huber, and which have so enraptured the fancy of his 

 numerous commentators. 



There is one discovery, however, which Huber made re- 

 specting the fecundation of the queen, which we cannot 

 allow to pass unnoticed; namely, that the drone, like the 

 moth of the silkworm, dies after copulation : and he avers, 

 that on the arrival of the queen at the hive from her amours 

 with the drone, he has actually observed the seminal matter 

 at the extremity of her abdomen *. Huber, however, sub- 



* Liittichau, Janscha, Kratzer, Miiller, and other German apiarians, pre- 

 tend to have discovered seminal matter on the posterior of the queen. It is, 



