NATURE NOTES. 
1 68 
“instinct;” but in cases of the so-called “inferior” types or 
divisions of the animal kingdom, surprise, not to say incredulity 
is evinced, when reasoning power is called in to explain certain 
methods of procedure. Yet we see no way of escape from be- 
lieving that even among the invertebrata are found clear cases 
of /revision of the future, and /revision for its needs. Such 
instances are furnished in a very high degree among the Insecta 
by the Hymenoptera. It is needless to recal what is now w r ell as- 
certained on this point in the habits of various species of ants. 
From the days of Solomon, these active creatures have furnished 
the naturalist with most interesting matter for observation and 
speculation, and the moralist with illustrations of the lessons 
he would enforce. 
It is, perhaps, less widely known how frequently bees ex- 
hibit signs of forethought and cautious regard for coming needs. 
Apiarians have long been acquainted with evidences of the 
kind referred to,* as gathered from the behaviour of queen- 
less stocks, when combs with eggs are supplied to them ; from 
the precautions taken against the breaking away of combs 
when a glut of honey suddenly occurs ; from expedients 
adopted when combs are detached, or have been tied into 
frames on removal from skeps. But perhaps one of the most 
curious of the consequences of reasoning among these insects is 
their conduct when a sudden dearth of nectar threatens them 
during the breeding season. They will then drag from the cells 
the partially developed larvae and eject them from the hive. 
We can imagine no other reason for this than a w’ell-grounded 
fear that supplies will run short for the adult population. 
More than this : the larvae first chosen are always those of drones 
— the non-producers of the community — moreover, the fully 
grown males will have been previously ejected from the hive or 
otherwise got rid of as w r orse than useless. 
But the recent rainy weather, with the probabilities of an 
end of honey-gathering suggested by it to the bees, prompted 
mine to a further display of economy of a very remarkable kind, 
and this notwithstanding a crate of fairly filled sections above 
the stock-box. Frugality is ahvays quoted as among bee- 
virtues, but it is not often that it leads them to cannibalism ; 
yet it is a positive fact that my bees, not content with ejecting 
larvae of both drones and w'orkers, proceeded to suck out the soft 
contents of the corpses, leaving only the white chitinous cover- 
ing, which had not hardened sufficiently to prevent the workers 
from piercing it with their mandibles, and then inserting their 
tongues. 
The carnivorous habits of w T asps are matters of every-day 
experience. Similar tendences on the part of bees are restricted, 
* I have detailed various remarkable facts in Chapter xxv. on “ Intellect and 
Instinct in Bees,” in my book “The Honey Bee,” published by the Religious 
Tract Society. 
