138 



PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



queens that conduct the secondary swarms usually pair the 

 day after they are settled in their new abode ; when the in- 

 difference with which their subjects have hitherto treated 

 them is exchanged for the usual respect and homage. 



We may suppose that one motive with the bees for follow- 

 ing the old queen is their respect for her ; but the reasons 

 that induce them to follow the virgin queens, to whom they 

 not only appear to manifest no attachment, but rather the 

 reverse, seem less easy to be assigned. Probably the high 

 temperature of the hive during these times of tumultuous agi- 

 tation may be the principal cause that operates upon them. 

 In a populous hive the thermometer commonly stands between 

 92° and 97° ; but during the tumult that precedes swarming 

 it rises above 104°, a heat intolerable to these animals. 1 This 

 is M. Huber's opinion. Yet still, though a high temperature 

 will well account for the departure of the swarm from the 

 hive with a virgin queen, if there were really no attachment 

 (as he appears to think), is it not extraordinary, that when 

 this cause no longer operates upon them, they should agglo- 

 merate about her, as they always do, be unsettled and agitated 

 without her, and quiet when she is with them ? Is it not 

 reasonable to suppose that the instinct which teaches them 

 what is necessary for the preservation of their society, — at 

 the same time that it shows them that without a queen that 

 society cannot be preserved, — impels them in every case to 

 the mode of treating her which will most effectually influence 

 her conduct, and give it that direction which is most beneficial 

 to the community ? 



Yet, with respect to the treatment of queens, instinct does 

 not invariably direct the bees to this end. There are certain 

 exceptions, produced perhaps by artificial or casual occur- 

 rences, in which it seems to deviate, yet, as we should call it, 

 amiably, from the rule of the public advantage. Retarded 

 queens, which, as I have observed, lay male eggs only, deposit 

 them in all cells indifferently, even in royal ones. These last 

 are treated by the workers as if they were actually to become 

 queens. Here their instinct seems defective: — it appears 



1 Huber, i. 280. 



