PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 355 
Huber relates a singular anecdote of some hive-bees paying a visit to a nest 
of humble-bees placed under a box not far from their hive, in order to steal 
or beg their honey, which places in a strong light the good temper of the 
latter. This happened in a time of scarcity. The hive-bees, after pillaging, 
had taken almost entire possession of the nest. Some humble-bees, which 
remained in spite of this disaster, went out to collect provisions ; and 
pringing home the surplus after they had supplied their own immediate 
wants, the hive-bees followed them, and did not quit them until they had 
obtained the fruit of their labours. They licked them, presented to them 
their proboscis, surrounded them, and thus at last persuaded them to part 
with the contents of their honey-bags. The humble-bees after this flew 
away to collect a fresh supply. The hive-bees did them no harm, and 
never once showed their stings ;—so that it seems to have been persua- 
sion rather than force that produced this singular instance of self-denial. 
This remarkable manoeuvre was practised for more than three weeks ; 
when the wasps being attracted by the same cause, the humble-bees entirely 
forsook the nest.* 
The workers are the most numerous part of the community, but are 
nothing when compared ‘with the numbers to be found in a vespiary or a 
bee-hive: two or three hundred is a large population for a humble-bees’ 
nest, in Some species it not being more than fifty or sixty. They may 
more easily be studied than either wasps or hive-bees, as they seem not to 
be disturbed or interrupted in their works by the eye of an observer.? 
Tam, &e. 
1 Hub. Wouv. Observ. ii. 378. 
2 This account of the procestiings of humble-bees is chiefly taken from Reaumur, 
vi, Mém, 1.; and M. P. Huber in Linn, Trans, vi. 214. 
AA 
