180 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 
wholly confine themselves to a vegetable diet; for, be- 
sides the honeyed secretion of the Aphides, the posses- 
sion of which they will sometimes dispute with the ants’, 
upon particular occasions they will eat the eggs of the 
queen. They are very fond also of the fluid that oozes 
from the cells of the pupa, and will suck eagerly all that 
is fluid in their abdomen after they are destroyed by their 
rivals>,—Several flowers that produce much honey they 
pass by; in some instances, from inability to get at it. 
Thus, for this reason probably, they do not attempt 
those of the trumpet-honey-suckle, (Zonicera semper- 
virens, L.) which, if separated from the germen after 
they are open, will yield two or three drops of the purest 
nectar. So that were this shrub cultivated with that 
view, much honey in its original state might be obtained 
from a small number of plants. In other cases, it ap- 
pears to be the poisonous quality of their honey that in- 
duces bees to neglect certain flowers. You have doubi- 
less observed the conspicuous white nectaries of the 
crown imperial, (2r7ziillaria imperialis, L.) and that they 
secrete abundance of this fluid. It tempts in vain the 
passing bee, probably aware of some noxious quality 
that it possesses. The oleander (Nerium Oleander, L.) 
yields a honey.that proves fatal to thousands of impru- 
dent flies; but our bees, more wise and cautious, avoid 
it. Occasionally, perhaps, in particular seasons, when 
flowers are less numerous than common, this instinct of 
the bees appears to fail them, or to be overpowered by 
their desire to collect a sufficient store of honey for their 
purposes, and they suffer for their want of selfdenial. 
* Abbé Boisier, quoted in Mills on Bees, 24. 
pene e cs ae 
b Senirach, 40. Tluber, 1. 172. 
