142 



PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



drones being laid in the course of April and May, and their 

 destruction being usually accomplished in the months of July 

 and August. The bees then, as M. Huber observes, chase 

 them about, and pursue them to the bottom of the hives, 

 where they assemble in crowds. At the same time numerous 

 carcasses of drones may be seen on the ground before the hives. 

 Hence he conjectured, though he never could detect them en- 

 gaged in this work upon the combs, that they were stung to 

 death by the workers. To ascertain how their death was oc- 

 casioned, he caused a table to be glazed, on which he placed 

 six hives ; and under this table he employed the patient and 

 indefatigable Burnens, who was to him instead of eyes, to 

 watch their proceedings. On the 4th of July this accurate 

 observer saw the massacre going on in all the hives at the 

 same time, and attended by the same circumstances. The 

 table was crowded with workers, who, apparently in great 

 rage, darted upon the drones as soon as they arrived at the 

 bottom of the hive, seizing them by their antennae, their legs, 

 and their wings, and killing them by violent strokes of their 

 sting, which they generally inserted between the segments of 

 the abdomen. The moment this fearful weapon entered their 

 body, the poor helpless creatures expanded their wings and 

 expired. After this, as if fearful that they were not suffi- 

 ciently despatched, the bees repeated their strokes, so that they 

 often found it difficult to extricate their sting. On the fol- 

 lowing day they were equally busy in the work of slaughter; 

 but their fury, their own having perished, was chiefly vented 

 upon those drones which, after having escaped from the 

 neighbouring hives, had sought refuge with them. Not con- 

 tent with destroying those that were in the perfect state, they 

 attacked also such male pupae as were left in their cells ; and 

 then dragging them forth, sucked the fluid from their bodies 

 and cast them out of the hive. 1 



But though in hives containing a queen perfectly fertile 

 (that is, which lays both worker and male eggs) this is the 

 unhappy fate of the drones, yet in those where the queen 

 only lays male eggs they are suffered to remain unmolested ; 



i Huber, i. 195. 



