PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 179 
serve a bee that has alighted upon an open flower. 
The hum produced by the motion of her wings ceases, 
and her employment begins. In an instant she unfolds 
her tongue, which before was rolled up under her head. 
- With what rapidity does she dart this organ between 
the petals and the stamina! At one time she extends it 
to its full length, then she contracts it; she moves it 
about in all directions, so that it may be applied both 
to the concave and convex surface of a petal, and wipe 
them both; and thus by a virtuous theft robs it of all its 
nectar. All the while this is going on, she keeps 
herself in a constant vibratory motion. ‘The object of 
the industrious animal is not, like the more selfish but- 
terfly, to appropriate this treasure to herself. It goes 
into the honey-bag as into a laboratory, where it is 
transformed into pure honey; and when she returns to 
the hive, she regurgitates it in this form into one of the 
cells appropriated to that purpose; in order that, after 
tribute is paid from it to the queen, it may constitute a 
supply of food for the rest of the community. 
In collecting honey, bees do not solely confine them- 
selves to flowers, they will sometimes very greedily ab- 
sorb the sweet juices of fruits: this I have frequently 
observed with respect to the raspberries in my garden, 
and have noticed it, as you may recollect, in a former 
letter?. ‘They will also eat sugar, and produce wax 
from it; but from Huber’s observations, it appears not 
calculated to supply the place of honey in the jelly with 
which the larvee are fed’, Though the great mass of 
the food cf bees is collected from flowers, they do not 
@ Vor. I. 4th Ed. 194. > Huber, il. 82. 
N@ 
