302 
MR. NEWPORT ON THE TEMPERATURE OF INSECTS. 
time to time the rise hnd fall of each thermometer, and to note the difference between 
them, the temperature of the air being of course taken in the immediate vicinity of 
the bee-house. By this course of observation it was found that the temperature of 
the hive, when the bees are in a state of repose, varies with that of the atmosphere, 
but that the change within the hive is never so rapid as in the atmosphere, unless 
the bees have been disturbed. When the temperature of the atmosphere has risen very 
suddenly, I have found it exceed that of the hive by one or two degrees, as in Table XVI. 
No. 1/3, provided the bees continue in a state of entire rest ; but if, on the contrary, 
the temperature of the atmosphere be suddenly diminished, that of the hive will sub- 
side also, but with much less rapidity. These facts are shown in the observations, 
Table XIV. Nos. 85 and 86, and also in all the observations on the tables which were 
made after one o’clock at noon on each day during the winter. Sometimes the ther- 
mometers became exactly equal to each other, as in No. 124. On the other hand, 
when the bees are in a state of activity and respiring quickly, the hive is even then 
affected in the winter months by great changes in the temperature of the external 
atmosphere, particularly if these changes occur late in the autumn or in the beginning 
of the winter season. But a change in the temperature of the atmosphere in summer 
does not so readily affect the temperature of the hive, because in summer, when the 
general temperature of the atmosphere ranges from 45° Fahr. upwards, the bees are 
always in a state of activity, and are not themselves so readily affected by sudden 
atmospheric changes of temperature ; while in winter, when the temperature of the 
season ranges from 45° Fahr. downwards, the bees are very soon affected by dimi- 
nished heat, and become disposed to pass into a state of hybernation, in which state, 
as we have before shown, scarcely any respiration takes place, and the temperature 
of the little animals sinks down, or very nearly so, to the temperature of the medium 
in which they are placed ; and if there be a direct and free communication between 
that medium and the external atmosphere, even down to that also. The amount of 
temperature in the individual bee I have been led to believe, as before stated, is in 
general from 10° to 15° Fahr. above the temperature of the medium in which it is 
living, when in a state of moderate excitement, but it seems liable to be still further 
increased at certain periods, as in the hive a short time before swarming, and 
when clustering together on the alighting board of the hive a short time before the 
colony departs. In some observations made on the 5th and 27 th of June, when the 
temperature of the atmosphere ranged only from 56° to 58° Fahr., the temperature 
of the hive was 96° and 98°, being at least 40° above that of the atmosphere. Now 
the occurrence of this amazingly high temperature at these periods is readily ex- 
plained by what we have learned of the habits of bees in incubating on the combs,, 
and voluntarily increasing their heat, by means of respiration, before the new bees 
come forth, that being the season in which the population of the hive is perhaps 
doubled within a very few days. A similar explanation is also afforded to us, i. e. 
the excitement of the insects, and consequent greatly increased quantity and activity 
