164 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 
different directions. At these moments if a young queen 
goes out, she will be followed by a numerous troop. 
Huber has given a very lively and interesting account 
of the interior proceedings of the hive on this occasion. 
The queen, as soon as she began to exhibit signs of agi- 
tation, no longer laid her eggs with order as before, but 
irregularly, as if she did not know what she was about. 
She ran over the bees in her way; they in their turn 
struck her with their antenna, and mounted upon her 
back ; none offered her honey, but she helped herself to 
it from the cells in her path. The usual homage of a 
court attending round her was no longer paid. Those 
however that were excited by her motions followed her, 
rousing such as were still tranquil upon the combs. She 
soon had traversed the whole hive, when the agitation 
became general. ‘The workers, now no longer attentive 
to the young brood, ran about in all directions; even 
those that returned from foraging, before the agitation 
was at its height, no sooner entered the hive than they 
participated in these tumultuous movements, and, neg- 
lecting to free themselves from the masses of pollen on 
their hind legs, ran wildly about. At length there was 
a general rush to the outlets of the hive, which the queen 
accompanied, and the swarm took place?. 
It is to be observed that this agitation, excited by the 
queen, increases the customary heat of the hive to a very 
high temperature, which the action of the sun augments 
till it becomes intolerable, and which often causes the 
bees accumulated near the mouth of the hive to perspire 
4 Huber, i. 25). 
