DUELS OF THE QUEENS. 201 



For this reason, the massacre of the queens ought to be 

 accompanied with the expulsion of the royal nymphs, in 

 order to form the just conclusion that the hive will not 

 throw a second swarm. 



We may venture to affirm in contradiction to Huber that 

 the queens take no part in the massacre of their superfluous 

 royal progeny, although Huber has so frequently witnessed 

 it; and he presents us with the following ludicrous descrip- 

 tion of the royal duels, which take place in the hive, on a 

 young queen emerging from her cell. In his account of the 

 birth of the six queens, he says, on the occasion of the birth 

 of the fourth queen, she showed no immediate disposition to 

 leave the hive ; on the contrary, it appeared to be her opinion, 

 that as there were once two kings on the throne at Brent- 

 ford, there might for once be two queen bees reigning in the 

 same hive*. The reigning queen was of a different opinion, 

 and therefore the only way of settling the dispute was by a 

 duel, and a duel did accordingly take place. It appears 

 however, according to Huber, from his ocular observation, 



* As a proof of the correctness of the knowledge of Kirby and Spence of 

 the interior economy of a hive, we read in their " Introduction to Entomo- 

 logy" of two queens co-existing in the same hive, one being larger and the 

 other smaller, and they proceed in utter defiance of all experience to dis- 

 seminate the error, that the latter is bred in a cell as large as that of the 

 common queen's, and is endowed with an ovary, in which, however, no egg was 

 ever yet discovered. This untenable error is, however, not inserted in their 

 work as the result of their own experience, but on the authority of Needham 

 and Huber. It should, however, be remarked, that men professing to impart 

 instruction to others on any subject of which they are themselves practically 

 ignorant, should be particularly cautious in regard to the authorities which 

 they may select, as, otherwise, that which is intended to be instructive, becomes 

 the very reverse. On referring to the works of Needham, we find, page 82, 

 " In no instance was it ever known that there were more than one queen in 

 a hive, with the exception of the breeding season, when there may be several 

 young queens, but they depart with the swarms or are killed by the bees." 

 Huber denies the existence of two reigning queens in a hive, and Kirby him- 

 self admits, that he never saw any of these little queens ; and yet in despite of 

 his own experience, and contrary to the two authorities which he has named, 

 he circulates the fact of their existence. Reaumur says, that some queens are 

 larger than others, and he attributes the difference in their size to the num- 

 ber of eggs in their ovaria. 



K 



