PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



163 



my little favourites both within doors and without, I shall 

 next enlarge a little upon their language, memory, tempers, 

 manners, and some other parts of their history. 



" Brutes " (it is the remark of Mr. Knight) " have language 

 to express sentiments of love, of fear, of anger ; but they seem 

 unable to transmit any impression they have received from 

 external objects. But the language of bees is more ex- 

 tensive ; if not a language of ideas, it is something very 

 similar." 1 You have seen above that the organ of the 

 language of ants is their antennas. Huber has proved 

 satisfactorily that these parts have the same use with the 

 bees. He wished to ascertain whether, when they had lost a 

 queen (intelligence which traverses a whole hive in about an 

 hour) they discovered the sad event by their smell, their 

 touch, or any unknown cause. He first divided a hive by a 

 grate, which kept the two portions about three or four lines 

 apart ; so that they could not come at each other, though 

 scent would pass. In that part in which there was no queen, 

 the bees- were soon in great agitation ; and as they did not 

 discover her where she was confined, in a short time they 

 began to construct royal cells, which quieted them. He 

 next separated them by a partition through which they could 

 pass their antennas, but not their heads. In this case the 

 bees all remained tranquil, neither intermitting the care of 

 the brood, nor abandoning their other employments ; nor did 

 they begin any royal cell. The means they used to assure 

 themselves that their queen was in their vicinity, and to 

 communicate with her, was to pass their antennas through 

 the openings of the grate. An infinite number of these 

 organs might be seen at once, as it were inquiring in all 

 directions ; and the queen was observed answering these 

 anxious inquiries of her subjects in the most marked manner ; 

 for she was always fastened by her feet to the grate, crossing 

 her antennas with those of the inquirers. Various other 

 experiments, which are too long to relate, prove the im- 

 portance of these organs as the instruments of communicating 

 with each other, as well as to direct the bee in all its 



1 In Philos. Trans. 1807,239. 

 M 2 



