360 



HYBERNATION OF INSECTS. 



Lastly, there are some few insects which do not seem ever 

 to be torpid, as Podura nivalis L., Boreus hiemalis Latr., and 

 the singular apterous insect, first described by Dalman, 

 Chionea araneo'ides l , all of which run with agility on the snow 

 itself; and which last, both from its spider-like form and 

 singular habitat, must, as Macquart has well observed 2 , have 

 caused its fortunate discoverer as much astonishment as that 

 felt by the botanist who first found the red-coloured Pro- 

 tococcus nivalis (whatever may be decided as to its being a 

 plant or an animalcule) in a similar situation ; or, as may be 

 added, that of M. Lefebvre on first observing the Mantis 

 (Eremiophila), mentioned in a former letter, living in an 

 absolute solitude in the desert of Africa. 



The common hive-bee, too, is probably never, strictly 

 speaking, torpid, though with regard to the precise state in 

 which it passes the winter a considerable difference of 

 opinion has obtained. 



Many authors have conceived that it is the most natural 

 state of bees in winter to be perfectly torpid at a certain 

 degree of cold, and that their partial revivisccncy, and con- 

 sequent need of food in our climate, are owing to its variable- 

 ness and often comparative mildness in winter ; whence they 

 have advised placing bees during this season in an ice-house, 

 or on the north side of a wall, where the degree of cold being 

 more uniform, and thus their torpidity undisturbed, they 

 imagine no food would be required. So far, however, do 

 these suppositions and conclusions seem from being warranted, 

 that Huber expressly affirms that, instead of being torpid in 

 winter, the heat in a well-peopled hive continues + 24° or 25° 

 of Reaumur (86° or 88° Fahrenheit), when it is several degrees 

 below zero in the open air ; that they then cluster together 

 and keep themselves in motion in order to preserve their 

 heat 3 ; and that in the depth of winter they do not cease to 

 ventilate the hive by the singular process of agitating their 

 wings before described. 4 He asserts also that, like Reaumur, 

 he has in winter found in the combs brood of all ages ; which, 

 too, the observant Bonnet says he has witnessed 5 ; and which 



i Kongl. Vet. Acad, Handling. 1816, 104. 2 Dipttres, i. 74. 



3 Huber, i. 134. 4 Ibid. ii. 344. 358. « Bonnet, On Bees, 104. 



