NOISES OF INSECTS. 491 
1s then with earnest entreaties, lamentations and groans, supplicating the 
queen-mother of the hive to grant her permission to lead the intended 
colony; —that this is continued, before she can obtain her consent, for two 
days: when the old queen relenting gives her fiat in a fuller and stronger 
tone. That should the former presume to imitate the tones of the sove- 
reign, this being the signal of reyolt, she would be executed on the spot, 
with all whom she had seduced from their loyalty.1— But it is time to 
leave fables: I shall, therefore, next relate to you what really takes place. 
You have heard how the bees detain their young queens till they are fit to 
lead a swarm, — I then mentioned the attitude and sound that strike the 
former motionless. When she emits this authoritative sound, reclining her 
thorax against a comb, the queen stands with her wings crossed upon her 
back, which, without being uncrossed or further expanded, are kept in 
constant vibration. The tone thus. produced is a very distinct kind of 
clicking, composed of many notes in the same key, which follow each 
other rapidly. This sound the queens emit before they are permitted to 
leave their cells; but it does not then seem to affect the bees. But when 
once they are liberated from confinement and assume the above attitude, 
its effects upon them are very remarkable. As soon as the sound was 
heard, Huber tells us, bees that had been employed in plucking, biting, and 
chasing the queen about, hung down their heads and remained altogether 
motionless ; and whenever she had recourse to this attitude and sound, 
they operated upon them in the same manner. The writer just mentioned 
observed differences both with regard to the succession and intensity of 
the notes and tones of this royal song; and as he justly remarks, there 
may be still finer shades which, escaping our organs, may be distinctly per- 
ceived by the bees.? He seems, however, to doubt by what means this 
sound is produced. Reasoning analogically, the motion of the wings 
should occasion it. We have seen that they are in constant motion when 
it is uttered. Probably the intensity of the tones and their succession are 
regulated by the intensity of the vibrations of the wings. Reaumur re- 
marks, that the different tones of the bees, whether more or less grave or 
acute, are produced by the strokes, more or less rapid, of their wings 
against the air; and that, perhaps, their different angles of inclination may 
vary the sound. The friction of their bases likewise against the sides of 
the cavity in which they are inserted, as in the case of the fly lately men- 
tioned, or against the base-covers (¢egu/e), may produce or modulate their 
sounds, a bee whose wings are eradicated being perfectly mute. This last 
assertion, however, is contradicted by John Hunter, who affirms that bees 
produce a noise independent of their wings, emitting a shrill and peevish 
sound though they are cut off, and the legs held fast. Yet it does not 
appear from his experiment that the wings were eradicated. And if they 
were only cut off, the friction of their base might cause the sound. f 
have before noticed the remarkable fact, that the queens educated accord- 
ing to M Schirach’s method are absolutely mute ; on which account the 
bees keep no guard around their cells, nor retain them an instant in them 
after their transformation.® 
The passions, also, which urge us to various exclamations, elicit from 
1 Reaum. y. 615, Butler’s Female Monarchy, c. v. § 4. 
2 Huber, i. 260. ii, 292. 
5 Reaum. vy. 617. 4 Philos. Trans. 1792. 5 Huber, i. 292. 
