HYBERNATION OF INSECTS. 449 
bees agitate themselves to keep off the cold, and venti- 
late their hive;—if, as both he and Swammerdam state 
they feed their young brood in the depth of winter— 
it seems impossible to admit that they ever can be in 
the torpid condition which Reaumur supposes, in which 
food, so far from being necessary, is injurious to them. 
In fact, Reaumur himself in another place informs us, 
that bees are so infinitely more sensible of cold than the 
generality of insects, that they perish when in numbers 
so small as to be unable to generate sufficient animal 
heat to counteract the external cold, even at 11° R. 
above freezing? (57° F.); which corresponds with what 
Huber has observed (as quoted above) of the high tem- 
perature of well-peopled hives, even in very severe wea- 
ther. We are forced, then, to conclude that this usually 
most accurate of observers has in the present instance 
been led into error, chiefly, it is probable, from the 
clustering of bees in the hives in cold weather; but 
which, instead of being, as he conceived, an indication 
of torpidity, would seem to be intended, as Huber as- 
serts, as a preservative against the benumbing effects of 
cold. 
Bees, then, do not appear to pass the winter in a 
state of torpidity in our climates, and probably not in 
any others. Populous swarms inhabiting hives formed of 
the hollow trunks of trees, used in many northern regions, 
or of other materials that are bad conductors of heat, 
seem able to generate and keep up a temperature suffi- 
cient to counteract the intensest cold to which they are 
ordinarily exposed. At the same time, however, I think 
a Reaum. 678. Compare also 673. 
VOI ; 2G 
