PAGE PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 
length. At the extremity of this, motion is first per- 
ceived, and then at the ends of the legs. After these 
symptoms appear they soon recover, fold up the tongue, 
and plume themselves for flight*. Experimentalists may 
therefore, without danger, submerge a hive of bees, when 
they want to examine them particularly, for they will all 
revive upon being set to the fire. Reaumur says that in 
winter, during frosts, the bees remain in a torpid state. 
He must mean severe frosts; for Huber relates an instance, 
when upon a sudden emergency, the bees of one of his 
hives set themselves to work in the middle of January ; 
and he observes that they are so little torpid in winter, 
that even when the thermometer abroad is below the freez- 
ing point, it stands high in populous hives. Swammer- 
dam, and after him the two authors last quoted, found 
that sometimes, even in the middle of winter, hives have 
young brood in them, which the bees feed and attend 
to». In an instance of this ‘kind, which fell under the 
eye of Huber, the thermometer stood in the hive at about 
92°. In colder climates, however, the bees will proba- 
bly be less active in the winter. They are then generally 
situated between the combs towards their lower part. 
But when the air grows milder, especially if the rays of 
the sun fall upon the hive and warm it, they awake from 
their lethargy, shake their wings, and begin to move and 
recover their activity ; with which their wants returning, 
they then feed upon the stock of honey and bee-bread 
2 Reaum. v. 540— 
> January 11, 1818. My bees were out, and very alert this day. 
The thermometer stood abroad in the shade at 514°. When the sun 
shone there was quite a cluster of them at the mouth of the hives, 
and great numbers were buzzing about in the air before them. 
