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MR. NEWPORT ON THE TEMPERATURE OF INSECTS. 
IV. Temperature of Insects which live in Society. 
We pass now to those insects which live in society, all of which belong to that great 
division the Hymenoptera, which have been shown to possess the highest tempera- 
ture and greatest amount of respiration. Naturalists hitherto have examined only 
two genera of this great division with reference to the subject of temperature of these 
insects in their dwellings. These are the Apis Mellifica, or common Honey Bee, 
and the society of Ants ; and the existence of a higher temperature than that of the 
atmosphere in the other families has only been inferred. Those species unto which 
I have devoted particular attention are the Bombus terrestris and Apis Mellifica. 
Bomhus terrestris. — 1. Temperature of Nests tinder observation. 
During the summer of 1830, having obtained a colony of this species, with the ori- 
ginal parent bee, from the neighbourhood of Richborough, near Sandwich, (which loca- 
lity had before that time afforded me opportunity of observing the habits of other 
species of this interesting family of insects,) I removed it from its locality in the 
earth to my own residence, the distance of a mile, and placed it in a small insect 
breeding cage for the purpose of more closely watching the economy of this species. 
The bees at first were somewhat irritable, and of course were kept in close confine- 
ment, and were fed with moistened sugar ; but within a day or two they became 
quite accustomed to their new residence, and I had ample opportunity of watching the 
economy of the nest. On the third day they were placed on a table in my sitting-room 
near the window, which remained open, and also the door of the cage, that the bees 
might go abroad and return at pleasure, which they did with as much regularity after 
the first day or two as if the nest had been placed in its proper locality in the earth. I 
had thus most ample opportunity of watching their habits. The nest consisted of from 
forty to fifty individuals, and it gave me great pleasure in being able to confirm many 
of the statements made respecting- these insects by Huber. During the time the bees 
were in my possession, a period of nearly three weeks, I observed upon introducing 
a thermometer among them, that the temperature of the nest varied at different 
times, and was considerably higher when they were in a state of excitement; but the 
circumstance did not then attract my particular attention. In the summer of 1 834, while 
engaged with the observations before detailed, I determined to repeat the observa- 
tion which I then remembered having made in 1830; and accordingly on the 10th of 
July 1834, having taken a nest of Bombus terrestris with brood comb, it was placed 
on a table near the window of my apartment, in a small box about eight inches 
square, and four deep, covered with green gauze, and after the first day’s confinement 
the bees were allowed to go and return as on the former occasion. Soon after com- 
mencing my observation, I was interested in observing that the bees were at first 
greatly affected and agitated by the slightest noise, such as the removal of a chair, 
or one’s footsteps about the room, or the passing of carriages along the road, which was 
at least thirty feet distant from the window of the apartment; but they were not in 
