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X. On the Economy of Bees, hi a Letter from Thomas Andrew 
Knight, Esq. F. R. S. to the Right Honourable Sir Joseph 
Banks, Bart. K. B. P. R. S. 
Read May 14, 1807. 
My dear Sir, 
In the prosecution of those experiments on trees, accounts of 
which you have so often done me the hpnour to present to the 
Royal Society, my residence has necessarily been almost 
wholly confined to the same spot; and I have thence been 
induced to pay considerable attention to the economy of bees, 
amongst other objects ; and as some interesting circumstances 
in the habit of these singular insects appear to have come 
under my observation, and to have escaped the notice of for- 
mer writers, I take the liberty to communicate my observa- 
tions to you. 
It is, I believe, generally supposed that each hive, or swarm, 
of these insects remains at all times wholly unconnected with 
other colonies in the vicinity ; and that the bee never distin- 
guishes a stranger from an enemy. The circumstances which 
I shall proceed to state will, however, tend to prove that these 
opinions are not well founded, and that a friendly intercourse 
not unfrequently takes place between different colonies, and is 
productive of very important consequences in their political 
economy. 
