MR. NEWPORT ON THE TEMPERATURE OF INSECTS. 
303 
of their respiration, — of the surprising amount of temperature that may suddenly be 
developed in the hive, even in the midst of winter, when the bees are disturbed, as 
in the observations 190, 193, 195, 205, 214, 221, and many others on these tables. 
I have found that be the insects ever so quietly at rest, and even passing into a state 
of hybernating sleep, and although the temperature of the atmosphere be very much 
reduced, as in the observations just noticed, and also in Nos. 52, 134, 137, and 139, 
yet by exciting and arousing them, by gently tapping and shaking the hive, the bees 
are immediately put into a state of great agitation, and in less than ten or fifteen mi- 
nutes the mercury will be raised on the scale of the thermometer upwards of 30° Fahr. 
above the temperature of the hive immediately preceding the experiment, when the 
bees were quiet, although the temperature of the atmosphere may scarcely exceed 
35° Fahr., and although the temperature of the hive itself had previously been not 
more than 6° above that of the atmosphere. But this is not the greatest difference I 
have observed between the temperature of the excited hive and that of the atmosphere. 
It may appear surprising that any part of a well-peopled hive should at any time have 
a temperature lower than that of freezing, 32° Fahr., yet I have occasionally found 
this to be the case both during the last winter, 1836-37, and once in the preceding 
of 1835-36. In the latter instance it occurred but once, as indicated by the thermo- 
meter. This was in the hive upon which I have made the whole of my series of ob- 
servations, and the hive at the time was well populated. It happened on the morning 
of January 2, 1836, at a quarter past seven, just before sunrise, when there was a 
clear intense frost, and the thermometer stood at 17°'5 Fahr. The bees were per- 
fectly quiet, and the thermometer which had been untouched since its first introduc- 
tion into the hive stood at 30°, or only 12 0, 5 above that of the atmosphere. The bees 
were then aroused in the usual manner by tapping the exterior of the hive, and in 
sixteen minutes the mercury of the thermometer had risen to 70° Fahr., but I was 
unable to excite the hive sufficiently to increase the temperature beyond this standard. 
This was 52° Fahr. above that of the external atmosphere, and 40° Fahr. above the 
previous temperature of the hive at that spot ; but this was only the apparent, and 
not the real temperature of the hive, and resulted from the great accumulation of ex- 
cited bees in the immediate vicinity of the bulb of the thermometer, within the hive, 
because a second thermometer having been introduced at a corresponding part of the 
top of the hive, at about five inches’ distance from the first, indicated a temperature 
in that part of only 45° Fahr. These observations were sufficient to prove the incor- 
rectness of attempting to ascertain the temperature of a hive of bees by occasionallv 
introducing a thermometer among them and taking the temperature of the bees when 
excited by its presence. This circumstance was not lost sight of in my subsequent 
observations. At 12 a.m. on the same day the temperature of the atmosphere had 
risen to 30 o, 7 Fahr., while that of the hive, as indicated by the first thermometer, 
had subsided to 46° Fahr., and the bees within had become perfectly quiet. On the 
5th of January at 1 p.m., the temperature of the atmosphere having risen to 50° Fahr., 
