34 TREATISE ON THE 
the whole colony is in a state of agitation 
and distress. Of the antenne: being employ- 
ed as instruments of recognition, the same 
naturalist gives a striking instance, which 
our limits prohibit from giving in his own 
words. Suffice it to say, that by means of a 
wire grating, wide enough only to admit the 
circulation of air, inserted in the middle of 
the hive, he separated the queen from half 
of her subjects and ascertained that neither 
sight, hearing, nor smell made the near neigh- 
borhood of their sovereign known to them, 
for they proceeded to rear a new queen from 
the larva of a worker, as if the other where 
irrevocably lost. But when a grating wide 
enough to allow the transmission of the an- 
tennee was discovered, all went on as usual, 
for the Bees soon ascertained by these organs 
the existence of their queen. 
Another important use which the Bees 
make of this organ of touch deserves notice. 
Let us follow their operations by moonshine, 
when they keep watch at the opening of the 
hive to prevent the intrusion of moths then 
