304 
MR. NEWPORT ON THE TEMPERATURE OF INSECTS. 
that of the hive stood only at 55° Fahr., while the bees aroused by the suddenly in- 
creased temperature of the atmosphere were becoming- active ; and when the hive was 
again excited by tapping it for a few minutes, the thermometer rose to 82 0- 2, a dif- 
ference of 32° above that of the atmosphere, and 2 7° above that of the previous tem- 
perature of the hive, after which the temperature of the hive was maintained at 78° 
during several hours, while the bees continued in a state of activity, the temperature 
of the atmosphere being then congenial to their habits, and equal to the average 
temperature of the month of April, when the hive is again becoming active. But 
these are not the greatest amounts of temperature observed in the hive on its be- 
coming excited during winter. In a second straw hive, which was exposed like the 
usual cottage hives to the open air, I found the interior temperature, at 10 a.m., on 
the 2nd of February, after the hive had been disturbed by tapping on its exterior, raised 
to 102° Fahr., the temperature of the atmosphere being 34°*5, a difference of 67°‘5, 
while the first hive, which had not been disturbed, was then 48°*5, a difference of 
only 14° Fahr. between it and the surrounding atmosphere. 
Although the hive be very much disturbed and its temperature be greatly increased 
by exciting the bees during the middle of winter, it will soon become quiet, and its 
temperature be reduced again to within ten or twelve degrees of the temperature of 
the atmosphere within ten hours, as in the observations No. 205 and following, made 
on the 2nd of January. 
When the temperature of the hive has been increased suddenly, during the earlier 
or latter part of the winter, which we have just seen is the case when the hive is 
disturbed, the sudden increase of heat in their dwelling becomes intolerable to the 
little inhabitants, and they immediately endeavour to reduce it by ventilation, pro- 
vided the temperature of the external atmosphere be not too low to endanger them, 
by exposing themselves at the entrance of the hive. When the temperature of the 
atmosphere is at or near 40° Fahr., at the time when the hive is disturbed the heat 
soon becomes oppressive, and although the degree of excitement within the hive be 
very great, its temperature is quickly moderated by the assiduity of the bees. I have 
often been amused by observing them, after the hive has been disturbed for a short 
time, although but a few minutes before there was not a single bee on the alighting 
board, come hastily to the entrance of the hive, and having arranged themselves 
within three fourths of an inch of the doorway, begin to fan with their wings most 
laboriously, to occasion a current of cool air through the interior of the hive. This 
act is the more assiduously performed, when, as in the hive under observation, there 
is not a free communication between the interior of the hive and the open atmosphere. 
On one occasion, No. 138, when the temperature of the hive had been raised to about 
70° Fahr., the external atmosphere being scarcely more than 40° Fahr., the bees at 
midday maintained the temperature of the hive steadily at 57° by this mode of ven- 
tilating, the hive still continuing excited. 
Although the bee can bear the transition from a hot to a cool atmosphere without 
