146 



PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



was rolled up under her head. With what rapidity does she 

 dart this organ between the petals and the stamina ! At 

 one time she extends it to its full length, then she contracts 

 it : she moves it about in all directions, so that it may be ap- 

 plied both to the concave and convex surface of a petal, and 

 wipe them both ; and thus by a virtuous theft robs it of all 

 its nectar. All the while this is going on, she keeps herself 

 in a constant vibratory motion. The object of the industrious 

 animal is not, like the more selfish butterfly, to appropriate 

 this treasure to herself. It goes into the honey-bag as into a 

 laboratory, where it is transformed into pure honey ; and when 

 she returns to the hive, she regurgitates it in this form into 

 one of the cells appropriated to that purpose ; in order that, 

 after tribute is paid from it to the queen, it may constitute a 

 supply of food for the rest of the community. 



In collecting honey, bees do not solely confine themselves 

 to flowers ; they will sometimes very greedily absorb the sweet 

 juices of fruits : this I have frequently observed with respect 

 to the raspberries in my garden, and have noticed it, as you 

 may recollect, in a former letter. They will also eat sugar, 

 and produce wax from it ; but, from Huber's observations, it 

 appears not calculated to supply the place of honey in the 

 jelly with which the larvae are fed. 1 Though the great mass 

 of the food of bees is collected from flowers, they do not 

 wholly confine themselves to a vegetable diet ; for, besides 

 the honeyed secretion of the Aphides, the possession of which 

 they will sometimes dispute with the ants 2 , upon particular 

 occasions they will eat the eggs of the queen. They are very 

 fond also of the fluid that oozes from the cells of the pupae, 

 and will suck eagerly all that is fluid in their abdomen after 

 they are destroyed by their rivals. 3 Several flowers that pro- 

 duce much honey they pass by ; in some instances, from 

 inability to get at it. Thus, for this reason probably, they do 

 not attempt those of the trumpet-honeysuckle (Lonicera 

 sempervirens), which, if separated from the germen after they 

 are open, will yield two or three drops of the purest nectar. 



i Huber, ii. 82. 



~ Abbe Boisier, quoted in Mills On Bees, 24. 

 3 Schirach, 45. Huber, i. 179. 



