PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 395 
of bees is more extensive ; if not a language of ideas, it is something very 
similar.” You have seen above that the organ of the language of ants is 
their antenna. Huber has proved satisfactorily that these parts have the 
same use with the bees. He wished to ascertain whether, when they had 
lost a queen (intelligence which traverses a whole hive in about an hour), 
they discovered the sad event by their smell, their touch, or any unknown 
cause. He first divided a hive by a grate, which kept the two portions 
about three or four lines apart; so that they could not come at each other 
though scent would pass. In that part in which there was no queen, the 
bees were soon in great agitation ; and as they did not discover her where 
she was confined, in a short time they began to construct royal cells, which 
quieted them. He next separated them by a partition through which the 
could pass their antenna, but not their heads, In this case the bees all 
remained tranquil, neither intermitting the care of the brood, nor abandoning 
their other employments; nor did they begin any royal cell. ‘The means 
they used to assure themselves that their queen was in their vicinity, and 
to communicate with her, was to pass their antenne through the openings 
of the grate. An infinite number of these organs might be seen at once, 
as it were inquiring in all directions ; and the queen was observed answering 
these anxious inquiries of her subjects in the most marked manner ; for 
she was always fastened by her feet to the grate, crossing her antenna 
with those of the inquirers. Various other experiments, which are too 
long to relate, prove the importance of these organs as the instruments of 
communicating with each other, as well as to direct the bee in all its pro- 
ceedings.” Besides their antennz, the bees also cause themselves to be 
understood by certain sounds, not indeed produced by the mouth, but by 
other parts of their body : — but upon this subject I shall have occasion to 
enlarge hereafter, 
That bees can remember agreeable sensations at least, is evident from the 
following anecdote related by Huber.— One autumn some honey was 
placed upon a window — the bees attended it in crowds. The honey was 
taken away, and the window closed with a shutter all the winter. In the 
spring, when it was reopened, the bees returned, though no fresh honey 
had been placed there.* 
From the earliest times our little citizens of the hive have had the cha- 
racter of being an irritable race: Their anger is without bounds, says 
Virgil ; and if they are molested, this character is no exaggeration. Some 
individuals, however, they will suffer to go near their hives, and to do 
almost anything ; and there are others to whom they seem to take such 
an antipathy, that they will attack them unprovoked, A great deal will 
probably depend upon this — whether any shing has happened to put them 
out of humour. The bees do not usually attack me ; but I remember one 
day last year, when the asparagus was in blossom, which a large number 
were attending, I happened to go between my asparagus beds; which dis- 
composed them so much, that I was obliged to retreat with hasty steps, 
and some of them flew after me: I escaped, however unstung. ‘Thorley 
relates an anecdote of a gentleman, who, desirous of securing a swarm of 
bees that had settled in a hollow tree, rashly undertook to dislodge them. 
He succeeded ; but though he had used the precaution of securing his head 
1 In Philos. Trans. 1807, 289. 
2 Huber, ii. 407. 3 Tbid. 876. 
