Huber, in his _Observations on the Natural History of Bees_, avers that the
moth called the _Sphynx atropos_ invades and plunders with impunity a hive
containing thousands of bees, notwithstanding the watchfulness, pugnacity,
and formidable weapons of those insects. To account for this phenomenon, he
states that the queen bee has the faculty of emitting a certain sound which
instantly strikes the bees motionless; and he conjectures that this
burglarious moth, being endowed with the same property, uses it to produce
a similar effect, first on the sentinels at the entrance of the hive, and
then on the bees within.
In another part of his book (2nd edit. 1808, p. 202.) he relates what he
himself witnessed on introducing a strange queen into a hive. The bees,
greatly irritated, pulled her, bit her, and chased her away; but on her
emitting the sound and assuming an extraordinary attitude, "the bees all
hung down their heads and remained motionless." On the following day he
repeated the experiment, and the intrusive queen was similarly maltreated;
but when she emitted her sound, and assumed the attitude, from that moment
the bees again became motionless.
Have more modern observers verified this curious fact? Is it not a case of
mesmerism?