MR. NEWPORT ON THE TEMPERATURE OF INSECTS. 
309 
same thing occurred both when the temperature of the medium in the upper hive was 
hotter, and also when it was cooler than that of the lower, and also when both were 
of exactly the same temperature. When the temperature of the external atmosphere 
is very high, as at 75° or upwards, the temperature of the interior of the hive, except 
at the period of swarming, is seldom more than a few degrees above it, either at the 
top or in the free space at the bottom of the hive. The bees then are generally very 
inactive, the heat becomes oppressive to them, and they leave the hive in great numbers. 
6. Mean Temperature during Summer and Winter. 
We have seen that the natural temperature of the hive during the winter is very 
much lower than during the summer, and that instead of the hive possessing a tem- 
perature of 86° Fahr., as stated by Huber and other naturalists, it occasionally has a 
temperature even below 32° in very low states of the atmosphere, while its mean, or 
average amount in the months of January and December, when it appears to have the 
lowest temperature, may not exceed 45°. It is, however, regulated by the temperature 
of the external atmosphere, being in a very mild season higher, and in a very severe 
season lower than its usual mean. Without very much digressing from the subject 
of the present paper, I cannot help remarking that a knowledge of these facts may 
lead us to a practical application of them, in the preservation and culture of the valu- 
able insect which is the subject of these remarks, the Honey-bee. It tends to confirm 
our opinion of the utility and prudence of the practice which is adopted by some 
cultivators, of placing their beehives during the winter in vaults, or other subterranean 
recesses, where they may remain in quietude, and in an almost uniform temperature, 
unaffected by the changes of the varying season. 
From the accompanying tables of the mean temperature of the hive, throughout 
nearly the whole year, it is seen that the mean temperature in the different days and 
months constantly maintains in every hive a certain relative amount of difference 
above the temperature of the atmosphere, and that although occasionally interfered 
with by casual circumstances, it is gradually increased from its minimum, in the 
month of January, when probably it is not more than 6° or 7° above the atmosphere, 
to its maximum, in May and June, when it amounts to from 25° to 26° or 2 7° Fahr., 
after which it again declines through the months of July, August, and September, 
until in the months of October and November it amounts to no more than 8° or 9°, 
and the bees are again passing into a state of inactivity. The mean difference of the 
first half of the year from February to the end of May, or up to the period of swarm- 
ing, greatly exceeds that of the second half, from June to the end of November; in 
the first half of the year the difference varies from 17° to 21° Fahr., while in the 
second half it is only from 10° to 8° Fahr. It will also be seen from one of the ac- 
companying tables that the mean hourly difference of temperature is almost uniform 
at the same hour and day of the same month in different years, even when the obser- 
vations are made in different states and temperatures of the atmosphere. 
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