June, 1907 



AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 



223 



ORGANIZED ANARCHY AMONG BEES 



By Gaston Bonnier 



EES and their monarchy have often been con- 

 trasted with republics. It is now known, 

 however, that the social system of the bees 

 is not monarchy, but socialism — or, rather, 

 anarchy, for there is no evidence of the ex- 

 istence of an administrative or legislative 

 body, commanders or a hierarchy of any 

 kind. If we must distinguish between the 

 social systems of bees and those of ants, in both of 

 which feminism has been carried to the high- 

 est development, we may say that ants are 

 individualists and bees are collectivists. 



The queen bee (Figs. 2, 4, and 6, M) is not 

 only absolutely devoid of authority but she is a 

 mere slave devoted to a single task, the laying of 

 eggs, in which she is guided and controlled by a 

 sort of staff, the members of which are continually 

 changing. The queen is the issue of a normal 

 egg similar to those which produce workers but, 

 instead of being functionally neuter, like these, she 

 is developed into a perfect female by the adminis- 

 tration of a special food. The fecundity of the 

 whole colony is thus concentrated in a single indi- 

 vidual, and the poor 

 queen, the universal 

 mother, is com- 

 pelled to lay con- 

 tinually, the number 

 of eggs laid each 

 day being nearly 

 proportional to the 

 quantity of honey 

 collected on that 

 day. At certain 

 seasons of the year 

 she deposits daily 

 3,000 eggs in as 

 many cells, which 

 are arranged in 

 double layers, back 

 to back, forming 

 the "combs." 



This mother of 

 her people has gone 



2— Qu 



-Bees Observed at the Entrance of a Hive. I, a guard; 2, ventilators; 3, a scavenger; 4, a harvester 

 resting before entering the hive; 5, a harvester laden with pollen; 6, drones 



outside of the hive only once, soon after her emergence from 

 the cocoon, and she will not go out again unless she goes to 

 lead a swarm. With these exceptions she is a perpetual 

 prisoner, tended and pampered by her train of workers, but 

 only on condition that she never fails to lay in the cells as 

 they are pointed out to her in perfectly definite order. If 

 her production of eggs becomes insufficient, for any reason, 

 the workers prepare a new queen to take her place. The 

 condemned queen herself lays, in a special cell, much larger 

 than the rest and of very different shape (Fig. 3, 

 left), the egg which is to produce her successor, 

 the larva which issues from this egg and occupies 

 the royal cell being fed with the special food 

 known as "royal jelly." As soon as the new queen 

 has emerged from the pupa and become pregnant, 

 the old queen, hitherto tended with the most scru- 

 pulous care, is ruthlessly sacrificed. Thus is ef- 

 fected what agriculturists call the natural renewal 

 of the queen. 



The sole privilege enjoyed by the queen is that 

 of living (provided that she continues to lay regu- 

 larly) longer than her sisters or her children. Her 

 life may extend through four or five years. The 



summer workers 

 live only six or eight 

 weeks, while the 

 winter workers, 

 which have very lit- 

 tle to do, may live 

 four or five months. 



Nor can a trace 

 of authority or in- 

 itiative be discov- 

 ered in the male 

 bees or drones 

 ( Fig. I, 6 and Fig. 

 5, B) . Their num- 

 ber, which varies 

 greatly during the 

 season, never ex- 

 ceeds a few thou- 

 sands, while that of 

 the workers of the 

 hive may be 



comb 



more 



