




HYMENOPTERA. 
In a hive which is going to “ cast,” as it is called in technical 
phraseology, there is often heard in the evening, and even during 
the night, a peculiar humming. All seems to be in agitation. 
Sometimes, to hear the noise, it will be necessary to bring your ear 
| close to the hive; you then will hear nothing but clear and sharp 
} sounds, which seem to be produced by the flapping of the wings of 
one single bee. ‘‘ Those who know better than I do the language 
| of bees,” says Réaumur, “have told marvels of these sounds. 
a _ —- —_- 
— 
They pretend that it is the new queen that makes this noise, 
that she is perhaps haranguing the troops she wishes to go with 
her, or that with a kind of trumpet she animates them to under- 
take the great adventure. Charles Butler, the author of ‘ Female 
Monarchy,’ attributes to this noise quite another signification. He 
says that it seems as if the bee which aspires to become queen 
supplicates the queen-mother by lamentations and groans to grant 
it permission to lead a colony out from the hive; that the queen 
| does not yield sometimes to these touching prayers for two days ; 
that when she does acquiesce, she answers the suppliant in a fuller 
and stronger voice; and that when you have heard the mother-bee 
grant this permission, you may hope next day to have a swarm... 
Butler has determined all the modulations of the chant of 
the suppliant bee, the different keys to which they are set, as also 
those of the chants of the queen-mother. He pretends that it 
is not allowed to those who wish to raise themselves to a superior 
rank to imitate the chants of the sovereign ; woe betide the young 
female if she should dare to do so, it would only be in a spirit 
of revolt; and she would be immediately punished by the loss 
of her head. The old-established queen does more than that: at 
the same moment she condemns to death those bees which had 
' been seduced.’* The true cause of this unusual noise is the 
agitation of the wings of a great number of the bees in the 
' middle of the hive. 
It has been remarked that when about to swarm, the bees seem 
as if mad. They lose their senses, the queen setting them the 
example. Francis Huber has made the most curious remarks 
on this subject. Here is, according to this immortal observer, 
what goes on in the hive when an emigration is about to take 
* ‘Mémoires pour servir 4 |’ Histoire des Insectes,” tome v., pp. 616, 617. 
































