Xatural History of the Honeybee. 17 



memory is a proof of the impulse for imitation which is undoubtedly present in bees for it 

 is not likely that every bee in the small cluster has this memory but perhaps only a few of 

 them. The others follow only on account of this impulse for imitation. If the first bees 

 remain true to the direction, then a great number will turn quickly with them. 



It must really seem strange, to any one familiar with the natural history of the bee, 

 that there can be any doubt as to the possibility of communication through sound, when 

 the whole life of a bee is one continuous humming, if I may so express it. Can this 

 "audible speaking ' ' have no purpose? Only the dead bee is quiet. 51 



If the previous assertions are not convincing, we may find proof of their capacity for 

 hearing in the following: 



THE "TEETING" AND "QTJAHKING" OF THE QUEEN. 56 



When the first swarm has issued with the old queen, normally nine or ten days pass 

 before the after-swarm follows. One or two days before the swarming, a strange concert 

 may be heard in the hive on a quiet evening at a distance of a couple of steps. It is the 

 ' * teeting ' ' and ' ' quahking ' y of the young queen. As is well known, the old queen, before 

 her exit, lays eggs in the queen-cells at intervals every day or so; the consequence is, 

 that the young queens do not all emerge at once. 



The first queen to emerge falls upon the other queen-cells in order to kill her rivals. 

 If the colony wishes to swarm, however, the workers prevent this destruction, and the 

 queen begins to "feet" in "jealousy. " She presses her head against the comb, as I have 

 observed, and sounds a clear, ringing, long-continued "teet, teet, ' ' apparently using the 

 stigmata on the thorax. Immediately the most mature of the queens still in the cells 

 answers with a short deep ' ' quahk, quahk. ' ' Thus this interchanging goes on for hours 

 or days with shorter or longer interruptions. If rainy weather prevents the issuing of 

 the swarm, and more queens mature, they i ' quahk ' ' likewise. They ' ' dare ' ' not emerge as 

 long as the "teeting" goes on; and since they need nourishment they cut a little slit with 

 their mandibles, through which they stick their probosces, and so are fed by the workers. 



It would lead me too far to go into these interesting circumstances. 



If we can prove from the above an undoubted capacity for hearing, we can also 

 from the following experiment: 



THE QUEEN'S TONE OF FEAR. 



If a strange queen is put into a queenless colony by merely allowing her to run in 

 upon a comb, then the bees nearest her fall upon her and bite her legs or ride upon her 

 to sting her. The powerful queen runs quickly away from her persecutors, but she is 

 continually seized by others. Now in her "fear" she utters loud cries which throw the 

 whole colony into excitement. One could here conjecture the influence of odor; but a 

 strange queen in a cage does not cause such excitement, especially not if the colony is queen- 

 less. It is doubtless the tones of fear which stir up the whole colony. We have here again 

 an unmistakable reaction toward sound-sensations. 



The attempt might be made to weaken these/ assertions, so far as they apply to the 

 existence of hearing capacity, by pointing out that no one has yet succeeded in showing 

 in insects a reaction toward sounds artificially produced. Then I would call to notice 

 that recently an American has obtained undoubted reactions toward the notes of tuning- 

 forks in two members of the Formicidae 56 (Lasius American us and Formica nitidiventris) 

 in the two Myrmicidse (Crematogaster lineolata, and a kind of Aphoenogaster). The 

 well-known myrmecologist William Morton Wheeler has meanwhile published in an 

 important paper (Ethological Observations on an American Ant, Journal fur Psychologie 

 und Neurologie, Bd. II., Heft 1 u. 2, Berlin, 1903), his investigations on hearing in ants. 

 He writes as follows: 



" Stridulation, at least among the Myrmicidse, Ponerida?, and Dcrylinae is an impor- 



M 1. Ernst Haeckel, Die Weltrateel, Bonn, 1899, p. 145. 



54 2. Now and then the colonies settle down in their winter sleep into a condition of complete quiet, 

 but usually it is accompanied by a hardly audible murmur. 



55 It is, of course, very difficult to represent these sounds in words ; but the ones here given are often 

 used in English to represent them. No bee-keeper will have any difficulty in knowing what is meant. The 

 author represents them in German by the words "Tuten" and "Quaken." — E F. P. 



5(5 Science (The Sense of Hearing in Ants), No. 5, Vol. X., No. 256, 1889. See also my Conclusions. 



