PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



127 



queen. When the queen is removed from a hive, at first 

 the bees seem not to perceive it, their order and tranquillity 

 not being disturbed, and their labours proceeding as usual. 

 About an hour after her departure, inquietude begins to 

 manifest itself amongst them ; the care of the young brood 

 no longer engages their attention, and they run here and 

 there, as if in great agitation. This agitation, however, is at 

 first confined to a small portion of the community. The bees 

 that are first sensible of their loss meet with others ; they mu- 

 tually cross their antennae, and strike them lightly. By this 

 action they appear to communicate the sad intelligence to 

 those who receive the blow, who in their turn impart it in 

 the same way to others. Disorder and confusion increase 

 rapidly, till the whole population is in a tumult. Then the 

 workers may be seen running over the combs, and against 

 each other, impetuously rushing to the entrance and quitting 

 the hive ; from thence they spread themselves all around ; 

 they re-enter, and go out again and again. The hum in the 

 hive becomes very loud, and increases the tumult, which lasts 

 two or three hours, rarely four or five : they then return, and 

 resume their wonted care of the young ; and 'if the hive be 

 visited twenty-four hours after the departure of the queen, it 

 will be seen that they have taken steps to repair their loss by 

 filling some of the cells with a larger quantity of jelly than 

 is the usual portion of common larvae ; which, however, is 

 intended, it seems, not for the food of the inhabitant, but for 

 a cushion to elevate it, since it is found unconsumed in the 

 cell when the grub has descended into the pyramidal habita- 

 tion afterwards prepared for it. 1 



If, after being removed, their old queen is restored to the 

 hive, they instantly recognise her, and pay her the usual at- 

 tentions ; but if a strange one be introduced within the first 

 twelve hours after the old one is lost, she is kept a close 

 prisoner till she perishes : if twenty-four hours, as I have 

 before hinted, have expired since they lost their queen, and 

 you introduce a new one, at the moment you set this stranger 

 upon a comb the workers that are near her first touch her 



1 Huber, ii. 396. 



