MR. NEWPORT ON THE TEMPERATURE OF INSECTS. 
305 
inconvenience during the spring when the temperature of the atmosphere is only 45° 
Fahr., yet it cannot bear a sudden transition from hot to cold in the winter, even when 
the temperature of the atmosphere is at 40° Fahr. I had a striking proof of this 
while making the above observation, No. 138, at 11 a.m., on the 14th of November. 
The hive had been for a considerable time in a state of excitement, and its apparent 
temperature was raised to nearly 70 °, while a great many bees were ventilating at 
the entrance, and others flew abroad into the open air while the sun was shining, but 
they very soon returned to the hive again. Shortly after this I found one individual 
lying within the entrance of the wooden hive apparently dead. On exposing it for a 
few minutes to the sun it began to revive, and was completely recovered, and able to 
fly again to the entrance of the hive, in six minutes. A thermometer placed close to 
the torpid bee in the sun rose only to 53°*5 Fahr. It was thus shown that the bee 
cannot bear a sudden transition in winter from a high to a low temperature, yet it will 
be seen by the Tables at Nos. 116 and 133, that the bees were active when the tem- 
perature of the hive was not higher than 43°, that of the atmosphere being 35° Fahr., 
so that it is not until the medium in which the bees are residing is below 40°, that 
the insects begin to pass into a state of repose. 
From a gradually increased temperature through the months of March and April, 
the hive acquires its maximum amount of temperature in the months of May and 
June, the periods of the greatest activity, and when the largest proportion of young- 
bees is produced. We are now aware of the circumstances connected with the great 
amount of temperature in the hive at this season, and of the power which the 
bees themselves possess of increasing it at pleasure, or as the necessity for imparting 
it to the young may demand. These facts will explain a circumstance connected 
with the temperature of the hive, which without a previous knowledge of them might 
have been of difficult solution. It is the circumstance before alluded to of one part 
of the hive being of a higher temperature than another. This is the case in the hive 
even when the bees are not in a state of excitement. I had been led to the observa- 
tion of this fact during the winter when making experiments on the bees in a state 
of excitement. Being anxious to know whether this was also the case in the spring 
and summer, I introduced another thermometer through the top of the straw hive, at 
the same distance from the centre, but on the side opposite to the one previously in- 
serted. This was on the evening of the 12th of May, when the temperature of the 
atmosphere was 58° Fahr. The instrument on passing through the top of the hive 
was plunged into a cell of honey, and the mercury rose to 78° Fahr., which of course 
indicated the real temperature at that time of the honey and interior of the hive. 
The mercury in the first or original thermometer was very quickly raised to 90° Fahr. 
in consequence of the excitement of the bees within the hive, but shortly afterwards 
sunk to 84°. During this time the temperature of the opposite side of the hive, as indi- 
cated by the newly introduced thermometer, rose to and remained at 79° Fahr. Here 
then we have a clear proof that the sudden increase of temperature when a thermometer 
