158 



PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



What would you say, should I tell you that the bees upon 

 this occasion have recourse to the same instrument which 

 ladies use to cool themselves when an apartment is over- 

 heated ? Yet it is strictly the case. By means of their mar- 

 ginal hooks, they unite each pair of wings into one plane 

 slightly concave, thus acting upon the air by a surface nearly 

 as large as possible, and forming for them a pair of very 

 ample fans, which in their vibrations describe an arch of 90°. 

 These vibrations are so rapid as to render the wings almost 

 invisible. When they are engaged in ventilation, the bees 

 by means of their feet and claws fix themselves as firmly as 

 possible to the place they stand upon. The first pair of legs 

 is stretched out before ; the second extended to the right and 

 left ; whilst the third, placed very near each other, are per- 

 pendicular to the abdomen, so as to give that part consider- 

 able elevation. 



Marialdi, and after him Reaumur, long ago noticed this 

 action of the bees ; but they attributed to it an effect the 

 reverse of that which it really produces ; the former imagin- 

 ing it to occasion directly the high temperature of the hive, 

 and the latter indirectly. 1 It was reserved for Huber to 

 discover the true cause of it ; and from him the chief of 

 what I have to say upon the subject will be derived. 2 



During the summer a certain number of workers — for it 

 is to the workers solely that this office is committed — may 

 always be observed vibrating their wings before the entrance 

 of their hive ; and the observant apiarist will find, upon ex- 

 amination, that a still greater number are engaged within it 

 in the same employment. All those thus circumstanced that 

 stand without turn their head to the entrance ; while those 

 that stand within turn their back to it. The station of 

 these ventilators is upon the floor of the hive. They are 

 usually ranged in files that terminate at the entrance ; and 

 sometimes, but not constantly, form so many diverging rays, 

 probably to give room for comers and goers to pass. The 

 number of ventilators in action at the same time varies : it 

 seldom much exceeds twenty, and is often more circum- 



i Reaum. v. 672. 



2 Huber, ii. 338—362. 



