Transcriber Note
Text emphasis is denoted by _Italics_ and +Small Caps+.
THE
HONEY-BEE.
THE HONEY-BEE.
[Illustration]
"What well appointed commonwealths! where each
Adds to the stock of happiness for all;
Wisdom's own forums! where professors teach
Eloquent lessons in their vaulted hall!
Galleries of art! and schools of industry!
Stores of rich fragrance! Orchestras of song!
What marvellous seats of hidden alchymy!
How oft when wandering far and erring long,
Man might learn truth and virtue from the BEE!"
+Bowring+.
THE
HONEY-BEE;
ITS
NATURAL HISTORY, PHYSIOLOGY
AND MANAGEMENT,
BY
EDWARD BEVAN, M.D.
"A bee amongst the flowers in spring, is one of the cheerfullest
objects that can be looked upon. Its life appears to be all
enjoyment: so busy and so pleased."
+Paley+.
LONDON:
BALDWIN, CRADOCK AND JOY.
1827.
PRINTED BY RICHARD TAYLOR,
SHOE-LANE, LONDON.
TO
THE REV. RICHARD WALOND,
RECTOR OF WESTON UNDER PENYARD AND
TREASURER OF THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH
OF HEREFORD.
_+Dear Sir+,_
_To whom can I with so much propriety dedicate the following sheets
as to you, who, in the elegant retirement of private life, have
occupied so many of your leisure hours in studying the œconomy and
management of Bees, and to whom, by the aid and encouragement you
have afforded me, is mainly to be attributed the commencement,
progress, and completion of the work?_
_I know of no one; and have therefore to request that you will allow
me to offer you this public testimony of my gratitude and respect;
and believe me to be_
_Your faithful and obliged friend,_
_EDWARD BEVAN._
Woodland Cottage,
April 5th, 1827.
ADVERTISEMENT.
--<>--
+The+ work which is now submitted to the judgement of the public,
in addition to other faults with which it will no doubt be justly
chargeable, may be thought by many to be defective in arrangement; and
if the author had aimed to produce a purely scientific work, he would
consider such charge as being well founded: but in making a humble
attempt to afford a popular view of the present state of apiarian
knowledge, historical, physiological and practical, he conceived that
he should most effectually attain his object by mingling the different
departments together, particularly where the two former would serve to
illustrate or explain the rationale of the latter. Moreover, his first
intention was not to offer much more to the public than is contained
in Part I. of the work; but the materials grew upon his hands, and
consequently after that part was modelled, he was induced by the very
great interest which was excited in his mind by the prosecution of his
inquiries, to exceed the limits which bounded his original plan:--the
result will be found in Part II. The subject would have admitted of still
further extension; but to have increased the volume beyond its present
size would have been to defeat one of the objects of the author, which
was so to compress his matter as to place his book within the reach of
as many as possible of those to whom he flatters himself it may prove
practically useful. Should the public, however, require a second edition,
and sufficing reasons urge him to place this series of bee-knowledge
under distinct heads, he will endeavour to re-model it, as well as
otherwise to improve it, by such alterations as ingenuous criticism may
suggest.
INTRODUCTION.
--<>--
+Although+ the great addition which has of late been made to our
knowledge of the honey-bee, may seem to render a reference to ancient
writers comparatively unimportant; yet a few prefatory observations, upon
the rise and progress of apiarian science, may not be out of season.
The natural history and management of bees would probably occupy the
attention of man at an early period. Surrounded by a boundless variety
of living creatures, he would naturally be led to notice their habits
and œconomy; and no part of the animal world, or at any rate no part of
the world of insects, would be more likely to engage his consideration
than the honey-bee. Honey would, in all probability, constitute one of
his earliest luxuries; and as he advanced in civilization, he would, as
a matter of course, avail himself of the industry of its collectors, by
bringing them as much as possible within his reach; and by this means he
would take an important step towards an acquaintance with entomology.
But the progress made by our earliest progenitors, in this or any other
science, is involved in the obscurity and uncertainty necessarily
appertaining to the infancy of society.
The first indications of attention to natural history are contained
in the Old Testament. The interest which it excited in the mind of
+Solomon+, evinces how highly it was esteemed in his time. The records of
its first progression are however entirely lost, and no regular history
of this science exists prior to the days of +Aristotle+, who under the
auspices and through the munificence of his pupil Alexander the Great,
was enabled to prosecute with the greatest advantage, for the time in
which he lived, his experiments and inquiries into every department
of natural history. Alexander felt so strong a desire to promote this
object, that he placed at the disposal of Aristotle a very large sum of
money, and in his Asiatic expedition employed above a thousand persons
in collecting and transmitting to him specimens from every part of the
animal kingdom. +Aristotle+ is therefore to be regarded as having laid
the first foundation of our knowledge of that kingdom. He must likewise
have derived great advantages from the discoveries and observations of
preceding writers, to whose works he would probably have easy access. No
individual naturalist could, without such assistance, have produced so
valuable and extensive a work on natural science as that which Aristotle
has bequeathed to posterity. And though the opinions of himself and his
contemporaries have been transmitted to us in an imperfect manner, and
abound in errors, still he and his editor +Theophrastus+ may be regarded
as the only philosophical naturalists of antiquity, whose labours and
discoveries present us with any portion of satisfactory knowledge.
The observations of Aristotle on the subject of the honey-bee were
afterwards "embellished and invested with a species of divinity, by
the matchless pen of +Virgil+," in his fourth Georgic; and it excites
feelings of regret, that poetry which for its beauty and elegance is so
universally admired, should be the vehicle of opinions that are founded
in error.
+Aristomachus+ of Soli in Cilicia had his contemplations for nearly sixty
years almost solely occupied by bees; and +Philiscus+ the Thracian spent
a great portion of his time in the woods, that he might investigate their
manners and habits without interruption; whence he acquired the name of
_Agrius_. However small their contribution of knowledge may appear to
this enlightened age, these ancient worthies must have aided the early
progress of their favourite science, and are at all events evidences of
the zeal with which it was prosecuted in their day.
About the commencement of the Christian æra, +Columella+, who was a very
accurate observer and exhibited considerable genius as a naturalist,
made some curious and useful remarks upon bees in his Treatise _De Re
Rusticá_: but Columella, like Virgil, appears to have acquiesced in and
copied the errors of his predecessors.
After him the elder +Pliny+ gave a sanction to the opinions which he
found prevalent, and added to them others of his own. But Pliny, though a
laborious compiler, occupied himself with too great a variety of pursuits
to attain excellence in any. As a naturalist, however, he is happy in
some of his descriptions. To him we are indebted for the transmission to
us of all that was actually known, or supposed to be known, of natural
history in his day. I say--supposed to be known, for many of the opinions
and conjectures which he has put forth, have been shown by modern
investigators to be ill-founded.
The notions of the ancients respecting natural philosophy rested on no
rational foundation; ideas of charms and of planetary influence directed
their most important pursuits, and led to the formation of very absurd
theories. When the writer last named recommends that the dust in which
a mule has rolled should be sprinkled on persons who are violently in
love, as a sovereign remedy for amatory ardour, and gravely tells us
that snakes are sometimes produced from the human medulla,--with much
nonsensical stuff of the like kind; we may safely pronounce that he or
his contemporaries or both were very credulous, and that the science of
experimental philosophy was scarcely cultivated among them.
After the compilation of Pliny's vast Compendium, nearly fourteen hundred
years rolled away without anything being done for entomology or for
natural history in general. +The Arabians+, who alone preserved a glimmer
of science during those dark ages that succeeded the fall of the Roman
empire, cultivated natural history only as a branch of medicine, and from
their writings little can be gleaned in furtherance of our present object.
On the revival of learning in the fifteenth century, and after the
discovery of the art of printing, various editions were published of
the works on natural history, written by the Withers of that science.
+Sir Edward Wotton+, +Conrade Gesner+, and others, produced conjointly
a work on insects, the manuscripts of which came into the possession
of +Dr. Thomas Penry+, an eminent physician and botanist in the reign
of Queen Elizabeth. After devoting fifteen years to the improvement
of the work, the Doctor died, and the unfinished manuscripts were
purchased at a considerable price by +Mouffet+, a contemporary English
physician of singular learning, who with great labour and at great
expense arranged, enlarged, and completed the work. When nearly ready
for the press, he also died; and the papers, after lying buried in dust
and obscurity for several years, at last fell into the hands of +Sir
Theodore Mayerne+ (_Baron d'Aubone_), a court physician in the time of
Charles the First, who gave them to the world in 1634. The arrangement of
this work is defective; but for the period in which it was written, it
is a very complete and respectable Treatise on Entomology. It was highly
recommended by Haller; and as a storehouse of ancient entomological lore
it has not yet lost its utility. Its pages are embellished with nearly
500 wood-cuts. An English translation of it was published in 1658.
According to Fabius Columma, +Prince Frederic Cesi+, president of the
Roman Academy of Sciences, wrote a treatise upon bees; but the work has
not been preserved, and we are unacquainted with its merits.
These authors were succeeded by Goedart, Swammerdam, Maraldi, Ray,
Willughby and Lister, who by their indefatigable exertions, towards
the close of the 17th century threw very considerable light upon every
branch of natural knowledge. Goedart spent forty years of his life in
attending to the proceedings of insects, "daily conversing with insects,"
as he expresses it, and published in 1662 a work on their natural
history; but the plates with which it is embellished form the best part
of it. +Swammerdam+ published his celebrated work, "A General History
of Insects," in 4to, in 1669: a more enlarged edition in two volumes
folio, containing the history of bees, was afterwards published in 1737,
under the auspices of Boerhaave, from the manuscript of Swammerdam.
Those readers who have patience to wade through these tedious volumes,
will find it rewarded by the attainment of much curious information.
+Maraldi+ published in the Memoirs of the Royal Academy of Sciences for
1712, his account of the manners, genius, and labours of the bee. He is
said to have been the inventor of glass hives, and to that invention
may be attributed the success of his inquiries. Swammerdam founded his
system upon what has been called the metamorphotic basis; and +Ray+, in
conjunction with his friend +Willughby+, whom he calls the profoundest
of naturalists and the most amiable and virtuous of men, erected his
superstructure on the same basis. In the _Historia Insectorum_ of Ray,
evidently the joint production of himself and +Willughby+, especial
attention is paid to the Hymenoptera: it contains various interesting
observations on their manners and characters; and the descriptions,
in which he was assisted by the use of very powerful microscopes, are
concise and well drawn. +Dr. Martin Lister+, in an appendix to Ray's
work, and in various other writings also, contributed materially to
elucidate the science of entomology. +Madame Merian+ likewise deserves
well, for her industrious pursuit of this subject, particularly for her
beautiful illustration of the metamorphoses of insects in Surinam.
The French natural historian +Reaumur+ stands prominent among the
students of entomology, for the unsurpassed enthusiasm and accuracy with
which he has investigated some of its most intricate parts. To him the
genus Apis is under greater obligations perhaps than to any entomologist
either of ancient or modern times. See his immortal work, "Memoires pour
servir à l'Histoire des Insectes," in 6 vols. 4to. 1732-1744.
About this period also flourished the great, the illustrious +Linnæus+,
whose labours diffused light over every department of natural science,
and have justly caused him to be regarded as one of its brightest
ornaments. He has generally been considered as the founder of the
artificial system of arrangement; but a very near approach to it was made
by that brilliant constellation of naturalists whom I have enumerated as
having flourished at the close of the 17th century, and who may probably
be regarded as having paved the way, and prepared materials, for the
formation of his more perfect system.
Afterwards appeared the works of the celebrated +Bonnet+ of Geneva, the
admiring correspondent of Reaumur, and the patron and friend of Huber.
This great physiologist became addicted to the study of entomology
before he was seventeen years of age, from reading _Spectacle de
la Nature_; and his decisive experiments upon Aphides do him the
highest credit. His works are universally admired for their candour
and ingenuity, as well as for their manifest tendency to promote the
happiness of man, by exciting in him the love of knowledge and virtue.
We now come to the physiological discoveries of +Schirach+, +Hunter+ and
+Huber+, men who have wonderfully advanced the science of entomology,
by a series of experiments most ably conducted, by the most patient
investigation, and the most accurate and enlightened observation, and
placed it upon the solid foundation of rational induction.
Several other writers also, both in systematic works and in periodical
publications, have contributed to throw much light upon the œconomy and
habits of the bee. Of the latter description in our own country may be
enumerated +Arthur Dobbs+, Esq.; +Thomas Andrew Knight+, Esq.; Sir +C. S.
Mackenzie+, and the +Rev. W. Dunbar+.
Hitherto I have referred to the writers on natural history in general,
or to the natural historians of bees in particular: many writers,
however, have paid great attention to the domestic management of these
insects. Their culture is indeed an object highly deserving the attention
of the agriculturist as well as of the natural philosopher. In the hands
of a judicious and moderately attentive apiarian, they may become a
profitable branch of rural œconomy: even the most humble cottager may
be made to participate in the benefit of an improved mode of managing
them: and as there is so much to admire in their general œconomy and
peculiar habits, the man of leisure may secure to himself a source of
pleasing and rational amusement in the possession of an Apiary; for the
pursuit of apiarian science, in common with the study of other branches
of natural history, leads to a salutary exercise of the mental faculties,
induces a habit of observation and reflection, and may sometimes prove a
valuable resource for keeping off that _tædium vitæ_, but too frequently
attendant upon a relinquishment of active life. No pleasure is more
easily attainable, nor less alloyed by any debasing mixture; it tends to
enlarge and harmonize the mind, and to elevate it to worthy conceptions
of Nature and its Author:
"The men
Whom Nature's works can charm, with God himself
Hold converse; grow familiar, day by day.
With his conceptions; act upon his plan.
And form to his the relish of their souls."
+Akenside.+
In the following Treatise it has been my endeavour to combine, as much
as possible, the profitable with the instructive and amusing; in seeking
which object, I have endeavoured to clear the ground before me, of the
wild-flowers of conjecture and hypothesis, with which the fecundity of
the human imagination has strewed it, and to substitute in their place
the less showy but more useful products of experiment and rational
deduction, the growth of which it should be the object of every labourer
in the field of science to promote. Always bearing in mind that false
theories often lead to erroneous practices, I have carefully abstained
from an indulgence in theory of a merely speculative kind, and confined
myself simply to offering such opinions to the attention of my readers,
as have been confirmed by repeated experiment and observation, and to the
recommendation of such practices as have been found useful by myself, or
by others on whose reports I can place the fullest reliance.
Among the writers who have improved the domestic management of bees, may
be enumerated +Warder+, +White+, +Thorley+, +Wildman+, +Keys+, +Bonner+
and +Huish+, all of whom have devoted many years of their lives to this
important object. Persevering, however, as have been the efforts of the
before-named writers to obtain an accurate knowledge of the physiology
of bees, and to discover the best plan for their management, there is
still much to be learned in both these departments, before the former
can be thoroughly understood, or the latter satisfactorily regulated.
I do not presume to imagine that I can throw much light upon either of
these topics; but, judging from the difficulties which I have myself
encountered in collecting the scattered materials of apiarian science, I
think that I shall confer a benefit upon future inquirers, if I enable
them to possess within a moderate compass such information as can be
relied on. Strongly impressed by the importance of the subject, I have
for several years devoted much of my time to its consideration; and
independently of the pleasure I have experienced in the prosecution of
it, as a most interesting branch of natural history, I have considered
that by contributing to extend and improve the culture of the bee, I
should assist in converting to useful purposes some portions of those
products of the earth which might otherwise be dissipated in the air,
washed away by the rain, or chemically changed by the action of various
surrounding substances, and in either case be rendered comparatively
useless.
Many of the tracts on bees are professedly written for the perusal of the
cottager. To him I do not so particularly address myself, as to the more
intelligent members of the community; and so far as I am able to succeed
in making an impression upon them, I shall consider myself as virtually
benefiting the cottager. The latter is generally too much of a machine
to be the first to adopt any improvement, however important; he is more
likely therefore to obtain bee-knowledge from the example or _vivâ voce_
instruction of his enlightened neighbours, than through the direct medium
of the press.
How far I may have succeeded in the object I propose to myself, I must
leave to the decision of my readers. It seems to be generally admitted,
that a Treatise exhibiting a concise view of the present state of our
knowledge of the bee is much wanted; and this result of an attempt to
supply that desideratum I now offer to the public, with a hope that it
may not be unworthy of its notice.
CORRIGENDA.
Page. Line.
193, 17, for _lives_ read _hives_.
228, 2, after "higher flavour" add "and in its never
candying, nor even losing its fluidity by
long keeping."
[Transcriber Note: Above changes were made to text.]
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
--<>--
PART I.
Chap. Page.
I. The History and Physiology of the Bee 1
II. The Apiary 47
III. The Bee-house 52
IV. Pasturage 55
V. Honey-dew 71
VI. The Purchase of Bees 80
VII. Bee-boxes 83
VIII. Bee-hives 95
IX. Comparative Advantages of Wooden Boxes and Straw Hives 100
X. Leaf Hives 102
XI. Dividers 107
XII. Storifying 109
XIII. Swarming 115
XIV. Comparative Advantages of Storifying and Single-hiving 122
XV. Symptoms which precede Swarming 127
XVI. Hiving of Swarms 136
XVII. On removing Bees from common Straw Hives to Storifying
Hives or Boxes 148
XVIII. Super- and Nadir-hiving by means of Binders 151
XIX. Uniting Swarms or Stocks 154
XX. Proper Periods of Deprivation 162
XXI. Taking Money by means of Dividers 167
XXII. The Bee-dress 176
XXIII. Feeding 179
XXIV. Diseases of Bees 184
XXV. Enemies of Bees 199
XXVI. Exotic Bees 210
XXVII. Separation of Wax and Honey 216
XXVIII. Wax 220
XXIX. Honey 226
XXX. Mead 236
PART II.
XXXI. The Anatomy of Bees 249
XXXII. Senses of Bees 302
XXXIII. Instincts of Bees 318
XXXIV. On the Architecture of Bees 339
XXXV. An Inquiry into the Source and Nature of Bees-wax 356
XXXVI. Pollen 370
XXXVII. Propolis 375
XXXVIII. Importance of Bees to the Fructification of Flowers 380
A GENERAL VIEW
OF THE
HISTORY AND PHYSIOLOGY
OF
THE BEE.
------------
PART I.
--<>--
CHAPTER I.
HISTORY AND PHYSIOLOGY.
+The Bee+ is considered by Naturalists as belonging; to what are called
perfect societies of insects, and, in entomological arrangements,
is placed in the order Hymenoptera, genus Apis. Of this genus there
are many species; Linnæus has enumerated 55; in the Dictionnaire des
Sciences Naturelles 70 species are characterized; and Mr. Kirby, in his
Monographia Apum Angliæ, has described above 220, natives of England. The
species to which I shall principally call the attention of my readers is
the _domestic_ +honey-bee+.
Every association of bees comprises three descriptions of individuals;
and each description is distinguished by an appearance and cast of
character peculiar to itself.
"First of the throng and foremost of the whole,
One 'stands confest the sovereign and the soul.'"
This couplet may, to a limited extent, be applied to other kinds of bees;
but it is more peculiarly applicable to hive-bees, as amongst them there
has never been found, in any single family, more than one acknowledged
regnant chief, usually designated by the name of Queen; of whom, as
having the highest claim to our attention, I shall first proceed to speak.
The +queen+, who is at once the mother and the mistress of the hive,
differs, as Mr. Hunter has observed, from the royal chiefs of other
insects, such as hornets, wasps and humble-bees; for the chiefs of
these latter societies seem to _work themselves into royalty_, whereas
the queen of the hive-bees _reigns from her very birth_. She is
distinguishable from the rest of the society by her majestic movements,
by the great length of her body, the proportional shortness of her wings,
and her bent sting. Her body tapers gradually to a point, her fangs are
shorter, her head is rounder, and her trunk not half so long as that of
the working bee. Her wings extend only half the length of her body, but
are strong and sinewy. Her colours also distinguish her as much as her
shape; they are much more distinct; the back is of a much brighter black;
the concentric rings on the under side of her body are darker, and the
lighter interstitial part of the same region appears of a brighter and
more lively hue. The legs also are of a deep golden yellow colour.
Next in order come the +working bees+: these are, by some, called
_neuters_ or _mules_; by others, _female non-breeders_. From what will
be said hereafter, I think that my readers will consider the latter
as the more appropriate title, the workers being sterile females with
undeveloped ovaries. In a single hive the number of these varies from
12,000 to 20,000: they are the smallest members of the community, are
furnished with a long flexible proboscis, have a peculiar structure of
the legs and thighs, on the latter of which are small hollows or baskets,
adapted to the reception of the propolis and farina which they collect,
and they are armed with a straight sting. Upon them devolves the whole
labour of the colony; they rear the young, guard the entrances, elaborate
the wax, collect and store the provision, and build the cells in which it
is warehoused, as well as those that contain the brood.
Thirdly, there are the +drones+ or +males+, to the number of perhaps
1500 or 2000. These make their appearance about the end of April, and
are never to be seen after the middle of August, excepting under very
peculiar circumstances which will be stated hereafter. They are one-third
larger than the workers, somewhat thicker and of a darker colour; they
have a shorter proboscis and are more blunt at the tail than either the
queen or the workers; the last ring of the body is fringed with hairs,
extending over the tail and visible to the naked eye. They make a greater
noise in flying and have no sting; are rather shorter than the queen but
much larger. Underneath the tail two small protuberances of a yellowish
colour may be seen, which are regarded as the distinctive marks of their
sex. In some swarms no drones are observable: probably these are first
swarms, which, being always led off by old queens, have no occasion for
drones, if there be any truth in the theory to be hereafter stated.
[Illustration:
_Queen._
_Drone._ _Worker._ ]
Contrary to what occurs in the human species and in other parts of the
animal creation, among bees, the females alone exhibit activity, skill,
diligence and courage, whilst the males take no part whatever in the
labours of the community, but are idle, cowardly and inactive, and
possess not the usual offensive weapon of their species. The only way
in which the drones promote the welfare of the society is a sexual one;
and I shall endeavour to show, in the course of this chapter, that they
serve no other purpose than that of impregnating such of the young queens
as may lead forth swarms in the season, or be raised to the sovereignty
of the parent hive. As the drones are "never seen settling on any kind
of flowers, nor laying up honey in the cells, they most probably feed at
home, and fully answer the description given of them by the poet:"
"Immunisque sedens aliena ad pabula fucus."
+Virgil.+
"Their short proboscis sips
No luscious nectar from the wild thyme's lips,
From the lime's leaf no amber drops they steal,
Nor bear their grooveless thighs the foodful meal:
On others toils, in pamper'd leisure thrive
The lazy fathers of th' industrious hive."
"Yet oft, we're told, these seeming idlers share
The pleasing duties of parental care.
With fond attention guard each genial cell,
And watch the embryo bursting from its shell."
+Evans.+[A]
[Footnote A: The elegant writer from whose unfinished poem, "The Bees," I
have made the above quotations, was for many years an eminent physician
in Shrewsbury, but has now retired into Wales, where I hope he will find
sufficient leisure and encouragement to resume the truly classical theme
which he has so nearly completed. Of the three parts which have been
already published, I shall frequently avail myself in the course of this
treatise, as well as of the highly interesting notes which are appended
to them.]
Mr. Morris of Isleworth, in the Transactions of the Society for the
encouragement of Arts, &c. for 1791, gives it as his opinion that the
drones "_sit upon the eggs_, as the mother lays them;" and says that he
has "often seen them sit in a formal manner on the combs, when the brood
is hatching, while the other bees were very busy at work." I suspect
that Mr. Morris mistook _sleeping_ for _brooding_, and that the drones
were only taking a nap. Fabricius says that insects never sit on their
eggs. Messrs. Kirby and Spence, however, have observed that the female
ear-wig does: they also make one other exception in favour of the field
bug (_Cimex griseus_), but add that these are the only ones. De Geer has
given a very interesting account of both these insects, particularly of
the strength of parental affection exhibited by the females. The female
of the former assiduously sits upon her eggs, as if to hatch them,
and after they are hatched, broods over the young as a hen over young
chickens. And when the eggs of the latter are hatched, she also, after
the manner of a hen, goes about with the brood, consisting of thirty or
forty in number and never leaves them: they cluster round her when she is
still, and follow her closely wherever she moves.
Besides the three essential members of the bee community, which I have
just described, Huber has called the attention of the Apiarian to a
fourth kind, which appear to be only casual inmates of the hive, from
which however they are soon expelled by the workers. He has called them
_black bees_, and says he first noticed them in two of his hives, in
the year 1809, and on several other occasions from that time to the
year 1813. They present a perfect resemblance to the working bees,
excepting in their colour, which, in consequence of their being less
downy, appears darker. On dissection, their internal structure also
appears to be the same. Huber regards them as imperfect bees, but leaves
to future naturalists an inquiry into their nature and origin. Messrs.
Kirby and Spence have thrown out a conjecture that these black bees may
be _superannuated bees_, that being no longer capable of contributing
towards the labours of the community, are banished or destroyed by its
younger members. They found their conjecture upon the usual effect of
superannuation in rubbing off the hair of insects and thereby giving them
a darker hue.
It is the office of the queen-bee to lay eggs, which she deposits in
cells constructed for their reception by the working bees. These cells
vary from one another in size, (and in the instance of the royal cells,
they also vary in form), according as they are intended to be the
depositories of eggs that are to become drones, or of those that are
to become workers. But for a more particular account of these cells,
_Vide_ Part II. "Architecture of Bees." The Rev. W. Dunbar, minister of
Applegarth, who has recently added some important particulars to our
general stock of knowledge respecting bees, states that when the queen is
about to lay, she puts her head into a cell, and remains in that position
for a second or two, probably to ascertain its fitness for the deposit
which she is about to make. She then withdraws her head, and curving her
body downwards, inserts her tail into the cell: in a few seconds she
turns half round upon herself and withdraws, leaving an egg behind her.
When she lays a considerable number, she does it equally on each side of
the comb, those on the one side being as exactly opposite to those on the
other, as the relative position of the cells will admit. The effect of
this is to produce a concentration and œconomy of heat for developing the
various changes of the brood. The following sketch is taken from a plate
given by Mr. Dunbar in the Edinburgh Philosophical Magazine, to represent
the comb upon which his observations were made, and to show that part of
it which was occupied by brood, the surrounding part of the square being
full of sealed honey.
[Illustration]
The _eggs_ of bees are of a lengthened oval shape, with a slight
curvature, and of a blueish white colour: they are composed of a thin
membrane, filled with a whitish liquor, and being besmeared, at the
time of laying, with a glutinous substance, they adhere to the bases of
the cells, where they stand upright, and remain unchanged in figure or
situation for four days; they are then hatched, the bottom of each cell
presenting to view a small white worm or maggot, with several ventral
rings. On its growing, so as to touch the opposite angle of the cell, it
coils itself up in the shape of a semicircle, and floats in a whitish
transparent fluid, by which it is probably nourished and enlarged in its
dimensions, till the two extremities touch one another and form a ring.
In this state it obtains indifferently the name of _worm_, _larva_,
_maggot_ or _grub_, and is fed with farina or bee-bread, to receive the
welcome morsels of which, it eagerly opens its two lateral pincers. It
is the opinion of Reaumur and others that farina does not constitute the
sole food of the bee-larvæ, but that it consists of a mixture of farina
with a certain proportion of honey and water, partly digested in the
stomachs of the _nursing_[B] _bees_, the relative proportions of honey
and farina varying according to the age of the young. It is insipid
whilst they are very young, and becomes sweeter and more acescent the
nearer they approach maturity.
[Footnote B: For an account of these see Part II. "Nature and Origin of
Bees-wax."]
Schirach imagined that the semen of the male was the food of the larvæ:
Bonnet entertained the same opinion, founded upon his observation that
the drones, in going across the combs, pass by those cells that contain
no maggots, but stop at those which do, giving a knock with the tail at
them three times. Upon this Mr. Hunter observes that _three_ is a famous
number! and we know very well that the development is complete in hives
that do not contain a single drone.
The larva having derived support in the manner above described, for four,
five or six days, according to the season[C], continues to increase
during that period, till it occupies the whole breadth and nearly the
length of the cell. The nursing-bees now seal up the cell, with a light
_brown_ cover, externally more or less _convex_, (the cap of a drone-cell
is more convex than that of a worker,) and thus differing from that of
a honey-cell, which is _paler_ and somewhat _concave_. It is no sooner
perfectly inclosed than it begins to labour, alternately extending and
shortening its body, whilst it lines the cell by spinning round itself,
after the manner of the silk-worm, a whitish silky film or _cocoon_, by
which it is encased, as it were, in a pod or pellicle. "The silken thread
employed in forming this covering, proceeds from the middle part of the
under lip, and is in fact composed of two threads gummed together as they
issue from the two adjoining orifices of the spinner[D]." When it has
undergone this change, it has usually borne the name of _nymph_ or _pupa_.
[Footnote C: Schirach asserts, that in cool weather the development takes
place two days later than in warm.]
[Footnote D: Kirby and Spence.]
It may appear somewhat extraordinary that a creature which takes its
food so voraciously prior to its assuming the pupa state, should live
so long without food, after that assumption: but a little consideration
will perhaps abate our wonder; for when the insect has attained the state
of pupa, it has arrived at its full growth, and probably the nutriment,
taken so greedily, is to serve as a store for developing the perfect
insect.
The bee, when in its pupa state, has been denominated, but improperly,
_chrysalis_ and _aurelia_; for these, as the words import, are of a
golden yellow colour and they are crustaceous; whilst the bee-nymphs
appear of a pale, dull colour, and readily yield to the touch. The golden
splendour, to which the above names owe their origin, is peculiar to a
certain species only of the papilio or butterfly tribe. The higher class
of entomologists, following the example of Linnæus, apply the term pupa
to this state of the embryo bee, a term which signifies that the insect
is enveloped in swaddling clothes like an infant, a very apt comparison.
Kirby and Spence have remarked that it exhibits no unapt representation
of an Egyptian mummy. Huber's translator says that naturalists of the
present day incline to use the name of larva, in all cases where the worm
is not seen under its final aspect.
The _working bee-nymph_ spins its cocoon in thirty-six hours. After
passing a certain period in this state of preparation for a new
existence, it gradually undergoes so great a change, as not to wear a
vestige of its previous form, but becomes armed with a firmer mail, and
with scales of a dark brown hue, fringed with light hairs. On its belly
six rings become distinguishable, which by slipping one over another,
enable the bee to shorten its body whenever it has occasion to do so; its
breast becomes entirely covered with gray feather-like hairs, which as
the insect advances in age assume a reddish hue.
When it has reached the twenty-first day of its existence, counting from
the moment the egg is laid, it quits the exuviæ of the pupa state, comes
forth a perfect winged insect, and is termed an _imago_. The cocoon or
pellicle is left behind and forms a closely attached and exact lining
to the cell in which it was spun: by this means the breeding-cells
become smaller, and their partitions stronger, the oftener they change
their tenants; and when they have become so much diminished in size, by
this succession of pellicles or linings, as not to admit of the perfect
development of full-sized bees, they are converted into receptacles for
honey.
Such are the respective stages of the working bee; those of the royal
bee are as follow. She passes three days in the egg and is five a worm;
the workers then close her cell[E], and she immediately begins spinning
the cocoon, which occupies her twenty-four hours. On the tenth and
eleventh days, as if exhausted by her labour, she remains in complete
repose, and even sixteen hours of the twelfth. Then she passes four days
and one-third as a nymph. It is on the sixteenth day therefore that the
perfect state of queen is attained.
[Footnote E: Instead of being nearly horizontal like the other
brood-cells, those of the queens are perpendicular and considerably
larger; in form they are oblong spheroids, tapering gradually downwards;
their mouths being always at the bottom. _Vide_ Part II. "Architecture of
Bees."]
The male passes three days in the egg, six and a half as a worm, and
metamorphoses into a fly on the twenty-fourth or twenty-fifth day,
after the egg is laid. The great epoch of laying the eggs of males may
be accelerated or retarded by the state of the atmosphere promoting
or impeding the collections of the bees. The _development_ of _each_
species likewise proceeds more slowly when the colonies are weak or the
air cool, and when the weather is very cold it is entirely suspended.
Mr. Hunter has observed that the eggs, maggots and nymphs, all require
a heat above 70° of Fahrenheit for their evolution. The influence of
temperature in developing embryo insects is very strongly illustrated
in the case of the _Papilio Machaon_. According to Messrs. Kirby and
Spence, "if the caterpillar of the _Papilio Machaon_ becomes a pupa in
July, the butterfly will appear in thirteen days; if it do not become a
pupa till September, the butterfly will not make its appearance until the
following June." And this is the case, say they, with a vast number of
other insects. Reaumur proved the influence of temperature, by effecting
the regular changes in a hot-house, during the month of January. He also
proved it conversely, by having recourse to an ice-house in summer, which
enabled him to retard the development for a whole year.
"The larvæ of bees, though without feet, are not always without motion.
They advance from their first station at the bottom of the cell, in
a spiral direction: this movement, for the first three days, is so
slow as to be scarcely perceptible; but after that it is more easily
discerned. The animal now makes two entire revolutions, in about an hour
and three quarters; and when the period of its metamorphosis arrives,
it is scarcely more than two lines from the mouth of the cell. Its
attitude, which is always the same, is a strong curve. This occasions
the inhabitant of a horizontal cell to be always perpendicular to the
horizon, and that of a vertical one to be parallel with it[F]."
[Footnote F: Kirby and Spence.]
The young bees break their envelope with their teeth, and, assisted
at first by the working-bees, proceed to cleanse themselves from the
moisture and exuviæ with which they were surrounded: this operation being
completed, they begin to exercise their intended functions, and in a few
minutes are gathering provision in the fields, loading "in life's first
hour the hollow'd thigh." M. Maraldi assures us that he has "seen bees
loaded with two large balls of wax, returning to the hive, the same
day they became bees." "We have seen her," says Wildman, "the same day
issue from the cell, and return from the fields loaded with wax, like the
rest." The error of Maraldi and Wildman in using the term wax instead of
pollen, does not at all affect the accuracy of their observations. As
soon as the young insect has been licked clean and regaled with a little
honey by its companions, the latter clean out the cell, preparatory to
its being re-occupied by a new tenant or with honey.
With respect to the cocoons spun by the different larvæ, both workers
and drones spin _complete cocoons_, or inclose themselves on every
side: royal larvæ construct only _imperfect cocoons_, open behind,
and enveloping only the head, thorax, and first ring of the abdomen;
and Huber concludes, without any hesitation, that the final cause of
their forming only incomplete cocoons is that they may thus be exposed
to the mortal sting of the first hatched queen, whose instinct leads
her instantly to seek the destruction of those who would soon become
her rivals. If the royal larvæ spun complete cocoons, the stings of
the queens regnant might be so entangled in their silken meshes, as to
be with difficulty disengaged from them. "Such," says Huber, "is the
_instinctive enmity of young queens to each other_, that I have seen one
of them, immediately on its emergence from the cell, rush to those of
its sisters, and tear to pieces even the imperfect larvæ."
A curious circumstance occurs with respect to the hatching of the
queen-bee. When the pupa or nymph is about to change into the perfect
insect, the bees render the cover of the cell thinner, by gnawing away
part of the wax; and with so much nicety do they perform this operation
that the cover at last becomes pellucid, owing to its extreme thinness,
thus facilitating the exit of the fly. After the transformation is
complete, the young queens would, in common course, immediately emerge
from their cells, as workers and drones do; but the former always keep
the royal infants prisoners for some days, supplying them in the mean
time with honey for food, a small hole being made in the door of each
cell, through which the confined bee extends its proboscis to receive it.
The _royal prisoners_ continually utter a kind of song, the modulations
of which are said to vary. _Vide_ Chapter XV. Huber heard a young
princess in her cell emit a very distinct sound or clacking, consisting
of several monotonous notes in rapid succession, and he supposes the
working bees to ascertain, by the loudness of these tones, the ripeness
of their queens. Huber has suggested that the cause of this temporary
imprisonment may possibly be to enable the young queens to fly away at
the instant they are liberated.
The queen is a good deal harassed by the other bees, on her liberation.
This has been attributed to their wishing to impel her to go off with
a swarm as soon as possible, but this notion is probably erroneous; it
certainly is so if Huber be correct, in saying that the swarms are always
accompanied by the older queens. The queen has the power of instantly
putting a stop to their worrying, by uttering a peculiar noise, which
has been called the _voice of sovereignty_. Bonner however declares
that he never could observe in the queen anything like an exercise of
sovereignty. But Huber's statement was not founded upon a solitary
instance; he heard the sound on various occasions, and witnessed the
striking effect which it always produced. On one occasion, a queen having
escaped the vigilance of her guards and sprung from the cell, was, on
her approach to the royal embryos, pulled, bitten and chased by the
other bees. But standing with her thorax against a comb and crossing her
wings upon her back, keeping them in motion, but not unfolding them, she
emitted a particular sound, when the bees became, as it were, paralysed
and remained motionless. Taking advantage of this dread, she rushed to
the royal cells; but the sound having ceased as she prepared to ascend,
the guardians of the cells instantly took courage and fairly drove her
away. This voice of sovereignty, as it has been called, resembles that
which is made by young queens before they are liberated from their cells;
it is a very distinct kind of clicking, composed of many notes in the
same key, which follow each other rapidly. The sound accompanied by the
attitude just described, always produces a paralysing effect upon the
bees.
Bees, when deprived of their queen, have the power of selecting one or
more grubs of workers, and converting them into queens. To effect this,
each of the promoted grubs has a royal cell or cradle formed for it, by
having three contiguous common cells thrown into one; two of the three
grubs that occupy those cells are sacrificed, and the remaining one is
liberally fed with royal jelly. This _royal jelly_ is a pungent food
prepared by the working bees, exclusively for the purpose of feeding
such of the larvæ as are destined to become candidates for the honours
of royalty, whether it be their lot to assume them or not. It is more
stimulating than the food of ordinary bees, has not the same mawkish
taste, and is evidently acescent. The royal larvæ are supplied with
it rather profusely, and there is always some of it left in the cell,
after their transformation. Schirach, who was secretary to the Apiarian
Society in Upper Lusatia and vicar of Little Bautzen, may be regarded
as the discoverer, or rather as the promulgator of this fact; and his
experiments, which were also frequently repeated by other members of the
Lusatian Society, have been amply confirmed by those of Huber and Bonner.
Mr. Keys was a violent sceptic upon this subject (See his communications
to the Bath Society); so likewise was Mr. Hunter (_Vide_ Philosophical
Transactions). But notwithstanding the criticisms and ridicule of the
former, and the sarcastic strictures of the latter, the sex of workers
is now established beyond all doubt. The fact is said to have been known
long before Schirach wrote: M. Vogel and Signor Monticelli, a Neapolitan
professor, have both asserted this; the former states it to have been
known upwards of fifty years, the latter a much longer period; he says
that the Greeks and Turks in the Ionian Islands are well acquainted
with it, and that in the little Sicilian island of Favignana, the art
of _producing queens_ has been known from very remote antiquity; he
even thinks that it was no secret to the Greeks and Romans, though, as
Messrs. Kirby and Spence observe, had the practice been common, it would
surely have been noticed by Aristotle or Pliny. The result of Schirach's
experiments was that all workers were originally females, but that their
organs of generation were obliterated, merely because the germs of
them were not developed; their being fed and treated in a particular
manner, in their infancy or worm state, being necessary, in his opinion,
to effect that development. Subsequent experiments conducted under the
auspices of Huber, have shown, however, that the organs are not entirely
obliterated.
Huber has been regarded as a man of a very vivid imagination; and as
his eye-sight was defective, he was obliged to rely very much upon the
reports of Francis Burnens, his assistant; on both which accounts other
apiarian writers have thrown some distrust upon his statements. Huish may
be reckoned among the number; he has also made some observations upon
Schirach's theory, and treated it with much petulance and ridicule. In
answer to him and all other cavillers, I shall detail an experiment made
by Mr. Dunbar, in his mirror hive. In July, when the hive had become
filled with comb and bees, and well stored with honey; and when the queen
was very fertile, laying a hundred eggs a-day, Mr. D. opened the hive
and took her majesty away. The bees laboured for eighteen hours before
they appeared to miss her; but no sooner was the loss discovered than
all was agitation and tumult; and they rushed in crowds to the door, as
if swarming. On the following morning he observed that they had founded
five queen cells, in the usual way under such circumstances; and in
the course of the same afternoon, four more were founded, in a part of
the comb where there were only eggs a day or two old. On the fourteenth
day from the old queen's removal, a young queen emerged and proceeded
towards the other royal cells, evidently with a murderous intent. She was
immediately pulled away by the workers, with violence, and this conduct
on their part was repeated as often as the queen renewed her destructive
purpose. At every repulse she appeared sulky, and cried _peep peep_,
one of the unhatched queens responding, but in a somewhat hoarser tone.
(This circumstance affords an explanation of the two different sounds
which are heard, prior to the issuing of second swarms.) On the afternoon
of the same day, a second queen was hatched; she immediately buried
herself in a cluster of bees. Next morning Mr. D. observed a hot pursuit
of the younger queen by the elder, but being called away, on his return
half an hour afterwards, the former was dying on the floor, no doubt
the victim of the other. Huber has stated that these artificial queens
are mute; but the circumstance noticed by Mr. Dunbar of the two queens,
just referred to, having answered each other, disproves that statement.
Contrary also to the experience of Huber, Mr. D. found that the cells of
artificial queens were surrounded by a guard. I have just adverted to the
protection which they afforded to the royal cells, when assailed by the
first hatched queen.
That _the working bees are females_ is clear from the circumstance of
their being known occasionally to lay eggs. This fact was first noticed
by Riem, and was afterwards confirmed by the experiments of Huber, whose
assistant, on one occasion seized a fertile worker in the very act of
laying. It is a remarkable fact that these _fertile workers_ never lay
any but _drones'_ eggs. This uninterrupted laying of drones' eggs was
noticed by the Lusatian observers, as well as by the naturalist of the
Palatinate. Bonnet, on referring to this fact, supposes there must have
been small queens mixed with the workers upon which the experiments were
made, whose office it was to lay male eggs in _all_ hives; for neither
he nor the before-named observers imagined that the workers were ever
fertile, though from the oft repeated experiments, just alluded to, they
must have regarded them as females. Probably the fertility of these
workers is occasioned by some royal jelly being casually dropped into
their cells, when grubs, as they uniformly issue from cells adjoining
those inhabited by grubs, that have been raised from the plebeian to the
royal rank; of course therefore they are never found in any hives but
those which have had the misfortune to lose their queen. Fertile workers
appear smaller in the belly and more slender in the body than sterile
workers, and this is the only external difference between them.
If any further proof were required to establish the opinion that working
bees are females, the question has been set at rest for ever, by _the
dissections of Miss Jurine_, daughter of the distinguished naturalist
of Geneva: what had eluded the scalpel and the microscope of that
penetrating and indefatigable naturalist Swammerdam, was reserved for
the still finer hand and more dexterous dissection of a lady. Miss
Jurine, by adopting a particular method of preparing the object to be
examined, brought into view the rudiments of the ovaria of the common
working bee: her examinations were several times repeated, and always
with success: in form, situation and structure, they were found to be
perfectly analogous to those of the queen-bee, excepting that no ova
could be distinguished in them. M. Cuvier, however, thinks that he has
observed minute chaplets in common bees, resembling those in the oviducts
of queens; an additional confirmation, if any were wanted, of the opinion
that workers are females whose organization is not developed. Miss Jurine
undertook the delicate task to which I have just referred, at the request
of M. Huber, who speaks of her as a young lady who had devoted her time
and the liberal gifts of nature to similar studies, and says that she
already rivalled Lyonnet and Merian; but adds, "we had soon to deplore
her loss." The research was first made to ascertain whether black bees,
which, when they appear in a hive, are much persecuted, were exposed to
this persecution in consequence of their sex exciting the jealousy of the
queen. The success of the investigation induced this accomplished young
lady to extend her dissection to the common workers, which was crowned
with a result equally gratifying. Parallel instances have been observed
with regard to the humble-bee, the wasp and the ant, amongst which, those
that have usually been called neuters are found to be females, and when
fertile, they, like the fertile workers in a bee-hive, produce males
universally.
Having now traced these insects through their regular stages of egg,
larva, nymph, until they become perfect bees, and having noticed the
facts which show the working bees to be females, I shall advert to
the more intricate and mysterious business of _Impregnation_. This is
a subject which was long involved in obscurity, and which indeed is
still clouded by some uncertainty. Schirach and Bonner stoutly denied
the necessity of sexual intercourse between the queen and the drones,
considering the former as a mother and yet a virgin, and Swammerdam was
of the same opinion; he ascribes impregnation to a vivifying seminal
aura, which is exhaled from the drones and penetrates the body of the
queen. This opinion arose from his observing a very strong odour to
be exhaled, at certain times, from the drones; "Hanc sententiam ratam
habuit, quia organa apum propagini servientia, sexus utriusque, ritè
dissecta, inter se ita disparia videbantur, ut congressus ne fieri quidem
ullo pacto posset." His opinion with respect to the vivifying influence
of the seminal aura also accounted satisfactorily, to his own mind, for
there being such a prodigious number of drones, as, in proportion to
their number, would of course be the intensity of their peculiar odour.
Reaumur very successfully combated this fanciful doctrine, and Huber
has confuted it by direct experiment. Reaumur inclined to the opinion
that there was a sexual intercourse, though his experiments left that
question undecided. Arthur Dobbs, Esq. has given it as his opinion that
the queen's eggs were impregnated by coition with the drones, and that a
renewal of the intercourse was unnecessary. He however thought that she
had intercourse with several, instead of with one only, in order that
there might be a sufficient deposition of sperm to impregnate all her
eggs. About the beginning of the last century, Maraldi broached another
hypothesis; he imagined that the eggs were fecundated by the drones,
after the queen had deposited them in the cells, similarly to what
takes place in the fecundation of fish-spawn. In 1777 that ingenious
naturalist Mr. Debraw, who was apothecary to Addenbroke's Hospital at
Cambridge, also adopted this opinion; and even so late as the year 1817
Huish has supported the same doctrine, and I believe does so at the
present time. Debraw thought he had discovered the prolific fluid of the
drones, in the brood-cells, which fertilizing the eggs caused them to
produce larvæ. Huber repeated the experiments of Debraw, and at first
gave him credit for the reality of the discovery; but further and more
minute observation convinced him that it was illusory, and that what he,
as well as Debraw had taken for seminal fluid, was nothing more than
light reflected from the bottoms of the cells, when illuminated by the
sun's rays. Moreover, it did not escape the acute mind of Huber, that
eggs were laid and larvæ hatched, when there were no drones in existence,
viz. between the months of September and April. The two hypotheses
just mentioned, accounted satisfactorily, to their supporters, for the
prodigious disproportion in the number of the sexes. But Huber made
the experiment of confining the queen and rigidly excluding every male
from a hive; nay more, he carefully examined every comb, and satisfied
himself that there was neither male nymph nor worm present; and lest it
should be supposed that the fertilizing fluid might be imported from
other hives, he totally confined the bees, on two occasions, and still
the eggs were prolific; which proves clearly that their fertility must
have depended upon the previous impregnation of the queen. The analogy
of wasps is indeed admitted, by Huish, to discountenance the opinion
which he entertains in common with Maraldi and Debraw. The queen wasp
alone, survives the winter, and deposits her first eggs in the ensuing
spring in combs of her own construction. Here then impregnation must
have taken place in the preceding autumn, whilst the eggs were in the
ovaria. It was the opinion of Hattorf, Schirach, and probably also of
Bonner, that the queen-bee impregnated herself; but this opinion is too
extravagant to require serious refutation: it arose probably, from their
making experiments upon queens taken indiscriminately from the hives,
and which had previously been impregnated. This no doubt misled Debraw,
who, without knowing it, had chosen for experiment some queens that had
had commerce with the males. The experiments of Huber were made upon
virgin-queens, with whose history he was acquainted from the moment of
their leaving their cells. In the course of his experiments he found
that the queens were never impregnated, so long as they remained in the
interior of the hive; but that _impregnation always takes place in the
open air_, at a time when the heat has induced the drones to issue
from the hive; on which occasions, the queen soars high in the air,
love being the motive for the only distant journey she ever takes. "The
rencontre and copulation of the queen with the drone take place exterior
to the hive," says Lombard, "and whilst they are on the wing." They are
similarly constituted with the whole family of flies. A corresponding
circumstance may also be noted with respect to the queen-ant; and Bonnet,
in his _Contemplations de la Nature_, has observed that _she_ is always
impregnated whilst she is on the wing. The dragon-flies copulate as they
fly through the air, in which state they have the appearance of a double
animal.
"When noon-tide Sirius glares on high,
Young Love ascends the glowing sky,
From vein to vein swift shoots prolific fire,
And thrills each insect fibre with desire.
Thence, Nature, to fulfil thy prime decree,
Wheels round, in wanton rings, the courtier bee;
Now shyly distant, now with bolden'd air.
He woos and wins the all-complying fair:
Through fields of ether, veil'd in vap'ry gloom,
They seek, with amorous haste, the nuptial room;
As erst th' immortal pair, on Ida's height,
Wreath'd round their noon of joy, ambrosial night."
+Evans.+
The males and the fertile females, among ants, are winged insects; the
former, as in the case of drone bees, perish a short time after their
amours; and the females, having alighted upon a spot suitable for the
formation of a colony, cut off their own wings, as being no longer of
any use to them. (Linnæus had observed that the females lost their
wings a certain period after impregnation.) A domino Hunter didici,
se bombinatrices sub oculos in coitu junctos, ut apud muscas mos est,
vidisse. "Aculeus," inquit, "articulo temporis ejicitur, et inter gemina
insecta, dorso feminæ imponitur. Hoc situ aliquandiù manent." In the
hornet it is the same.
If the queen-bee be confined, though amid a seraglio of males, she
continues barren. Prior to her flight, (which is preceded by the flight
of the drones,) she reconnoitres the exterior of the hive, apparently for
the purpose of recognition, and sometimes, after flying a few feet from
it, returns to it again: finally she rises aloft in the air, describing
in her flight horizontal circles of considerable diameter, till she
is out of sight. She returns from her aërial excursion in about half
an hour, with the most evident marks of fecundation. Excursions are
sometimes made for a shorter period, but then she exhibits no sign of
having been impregnated. It is curious that Bonner should have remarked
those aërial excursions, without suspecting their object. "I have often,"
says he, "seen the young queens taking an airing upon the second or
third day of their age." Yet Huish says, "It is an acknowledged tact
that the queen-bee never leaves the hive, on any account whatsoever."
Perhaps Huish's observations were made upon first swarms; and these,
according to Huber, are uniformly conducted by old queens. Swammerdam
also made the same observation as to _first swarms being always led off
by old queens_. Old queens have not the same occasion to quit the hives
that young ones have,--viz. to have intercourse with the drones; for,
according to Huber, one impregnation is sufficient to fertilize all the
eggs that are laid for two years afterwards, at least. He _thinks_ it is
sufficient to fertilize all that she lays during her whole life. This may
appear, to some, an incredible period; and Huish inquires, admitting that
a single act of coition be sufficient to fecundate all the eggs existing
in the ovaria at the time, how those are fecundated which did not exist
there? But when we consider that in the common spider, according to
Audebert, the fertilizing effect continues for _many years_; and that
the fecundation of the eggs of the female aphides or green lice, by the
males of one generation, will continue for a year, passing, during that
period, through _nine_ or _ten successive generations_ of females, the
causes for doubt will, I think, be greatly diminished: at any rate we
are not at liberty to reject the evidence of facts, because we cannot
understand their _modus operandi_. With respect to the aphis, Bonnet
says the influence of the male continues through _five_ generations,
but Lyonnet carried his experiments to a more extended period; and
according to Messrs. Kirby and Spence, who give it "upon the authority
of Mr. Wolnough of Hollesley (late of Boyton) in Suffolk, an intelligent
agriculturist, and a most acute and accurate observer of nature, there
may be _twenty_ generations in a year." Reaumur has proved that in _five_
generations one aphis may be the progenitor of 5,904,900,000 descendants.
It may be objected to me here, that the aphis is a viviparous insect,
and that the experiments which prove what I have referred to, do not
therefore bear upon the question. It has been ascertained, however, that
they are strictly oviparous at the close of the year (one species is at
all times so), at other times ovo-viviparous; and in either case the
penetrating influence of the male sperm is surely still more remarkable
where there has been no immediate commerce with the male, than in the
direct case of the oviparous bee! It has been observed, however, that
the further the female aphides are removed from the first mother, or
that which had known the male, the less prolific do they become. In
order to put my readers in possession of Dr. Fleming's opinion upon this
subject, I will quote what he has said in his Philosophy of Zoology.
"Impregnation, in insects, appears to take place while the eggs pass
a reservoir containing the sperm, situated near the termination of the
oviduct in the vulva. In dissecting the female parts, in the silk-moth,
says Mr. Hunter, I discovered a bag, lying on what may be called the
vagina or common oviduct, whose mouth or opening was external, but it
had a canal of communication betwixt it and the common oviduct. In
dissecting these parts, before copulation, I found this bag empty; and
when I dissected them afterwards, I found it full. (Phil. Trans. 1792.
p. 186.) By the most decisive experiments, such as covering the ova of
the unimpregnated moth, after exclusion, with the liquor taken from
this bag, in those which had had sexual intercourse, and rendering them
fertile, he demonstrated that this bag was a reservoir for the spermatic
fluid, to impregnate the eggs, as they were ready for exclusion, and that
coition and impregnation were not simultaneous." Linnæus thought that
there was a sexual intercourse between the queens and the drones, and he
even suspected that it proved fatal to the latter. His opinion, on both
these points, seems to be confirmed by the experiments of Huber; who
ascertained by repeated observations on newly impregnated queens, "Fuci
organum, post congressum, in corpore feminæ hæsisse, unde exitus fatalis
expectandus est; ita autem accidere re verâ non liquet." "Apum regina et
mater," says Mr. Kirby, "in sublime fertur maritum infelicem petens,
qui voluptatem brevem vitâ emat." Reaumur thought sexual union necessary
to impregnation, and tried many experiments to ascertain the fact; such
as confining a queen under a glass in company with drones: and these
experiments were repeated by Huber. Both these naturalists witnessed
the solicitations and advances of the queens towards the drones,
"nihilominùs, coeuntia tempore quovis conspicere non possent." Reaumur
_fancied_ he saw it; there is, however, very great reason to believe that
he was mistaken: the queens so exposed all proved barren. Swammerdam
asserted that clipping the wings of queens rendered them sterile, a fact
which militates very much against his own theory of impregnation being
produced by a seminal aura, but strongly confirms the theory of Huber;
as in all probability the mutilating experiments of Swammerdam were made
upon virgin queens, which thereby lost the power of quitting the hives.
Huber found that clipping the wings of _impregnated_ queens produced no
effect upon them; it neither diminished the respectful attentions of the
workers, nor interfered with their laying of eggs. Why impregnation can
only take place in the open air and when the insects are on the wing, at
present remains a mystery.
The young virgin-queens, generally, set out in quest of the males, the
day after they are settled in their new abode, which is usually the
fifth day of their existence as queens, two or three days being passed
in captivity, one in the native hive after their liberation, and the
fifth in the new dwelling. The ancients seem to have been very solicitous
to establish for the bees a character of inviolable chastity: Pliny
observes, "Apium enim coitus visus nunquam." And Virgil endeavours to
support the same opinion:
"But of all customs which the bees can boast,
'Tis this that claims our admiration most;
That none will Hymen's softer joys approve,
Nor waste their spirits in luxurious love:
But all a long virginity maintain.
And bring forth young without a mother's pain."
It was the opinion of most ancient philosophers that bees derived their
origin from the putrid carcases of animals. _Vide_ Chap. II. Some also
have supposed them to proceed from the parts of fructification in
flowers. Virgil, borrowing as usual from Aristotle, among the rest:
"Well might the Bard, on fancy's frolic wing,
Bid, from fresh flowers, enascent myriads spring,
Raise genial ferment in the slaughter'd steer.
And people thence his insect-teeming year;
A fabled race, whom no soft passions move.
The smile of duty nor the glance of love."
+Evans.+
"To vindicate, in some measure, the character of the insect queen, Mr.
Wildman boldly dared to stem the torrent, and revive the long forgotten
idea suggested by Mr. Butler in his _Feminine Monarchy_, that queens
produce queens only, and that the common bees are the mothers of common
bees." But all these fanciful notions must yield to the clear and
decisive experiments of Huber, who has satisfactorily shown that _the
queen is the general mother of all_; he has also resolved the causes
of former mistaken opinions. Many apiarians have found a difficulty
in admitting the theory of Huber, in consequence of the very great
disproportion in the number of the sexes, there being only one female
to several hundred males, and one impregnation being, in his opinion,
all that is required to fertilize myriads of eggs. The number of drones
may be considered as in accordance, in some degree, with the general
profusion of nature: we find her abounding with supernumeraries in a
great variety of instances, in the blossoms of trees and flowers, as well
as in the relative number of one sex to the other among animals. Huber
conceives that it was necessary there should be a great number of drones,
that the queen might be sure of finding one, in her excursion through the
expanse of the atmosphere, and run no risk of sterility.
In page 26 I have stated the opinion of Mr. Dobbs, that a queen has
intercourse with several drones; and what I have also stated upon the
authority of Mr. Hunter, in page 34, with respect to the silk-moth
and other insects, gives countenance to that opinion: nor do I see its
inconsistency with the discovery made by Huber. Though there is reason
to believe that the act proves fatal to one devoted drone, yet those
that are so fortunate as to obtain the first favours of her majesty,
may escape uninjured. If the conjecture which I have thus hazarded be
correct, it will appear less surprising that so many drones should be
brought into existence.
The queen begins to lay her eggs as soon as a few portions of comb are
completely formed. By the time that combs five or six inches square
are constructed, eggs, honey and bee-bread will be found in them.
Huber states that _the laying usually commences forty-six hours after
the intercourse with the male; and that during the eleven succeeding
months, the eggs of workers only are laid; after which a considerable
and uninterrupted laying of drones' eggs commences_. This period may be
retarded by the temperature of the atmosphere. Huber relates an instance
where, the weather having become suddenly cold, after an impregnation
which took place on the 31st of October, that queen did not lay till the
March following. The effects of retardation will be noticed presently.
_Twenty days after the queen has begun to lay the eggs of drones, "the
working bees,"_ says Huber, "_construct the_ +royal cells+, _in which
the queens, without discontinuing the laying of male eggs, deposit,
at the interval of one, two or three days, those eggs from which the
queens are successively to spring_." This laying of the eggs of drones,
which is called the great laying, usually happens in May. There seems
to be a secret relation between the production of these eggs, and the
construction of royal cells: the laying commonly lasts thirty days, and
regularly on the 20th or 21st day, as has been already observed, royal
cells are founded. _When the larvæ, hatched from the eggs laid by the
queen in the royal cells, are ready to be transformed to nymphs, this
queen leaves the hive, conducting a swarm along with her._ A swarm is
always led off by a single queen; and Huber remarks that it was necessary
for instinct to impel the old queen to lead forth the first swarm; for,
being the strongest, she would never fail to overthrow the younger
competitors for the throne, near which "the jealous Semiramis of the
hive will bear no rival." The queen, having finished her laying of male
eggs and of royal eggs, prior to her quitting the old hive, is ready
to commence, in the new one, with the laying of workers' eggs, workers
being first needed, in order to secure the continuance and prosperity
of the newly founded commonwealth. The bees that remain in the old hive
take particular care of the royal cells, and prevent the young queens,
successively hatched, from leaving them, except at an interval of several
days from each departure. But I have already adverted to their mode of
proceeding on these occasions. _Vide_ page 17. _The law of primogeniture_
is always strictly observed towards these royal insects, the first-born
or princess-royal being always selected to go off with the second swarm,
or to reign over the parent stock, as the case may be; and so on with
respect to the third and fourth, or whatever number may issue. It is
remarkable that a queen seldom, if ever, leads forth a swarm, except
there be sunshine and calm air. Such a ferment occasionally rages in the
hives, as soon as the young queens are hatched, that Huber has often
observed the thermometer placed in the hive, rise suddenly from about 92°
to above 104° Fahrenheit. This suffocating heat he considers as one of
the means employed by nature for urging the bees to go off in swarms. _In
warm weather one strong hive has been known to send off four swarms in 18
days._ _Vide_ Chap. XIII.
According to Huber, _the queen ordinarily lays about 12,000 eggs in two
months_, one impregnation serving, as has been before stated, for the
whole complement of eggs, of every description, which she lays during
two years at least. It is not to be supposed that she lays at the rate
of 12,000 eggs every two months, but she does so at the principal
laying in April and May: there is also another great laying in August.
Early in November the laying usually ceases. Reaumur states the number
of eggs laid by a queen in two months at double the amount of Huber's
calculation; viz. 200 a day, on an average. This variation may have
arisen from variety of climate, season, or other circumstances. _A
moderate swarm has been calculated to consist of from 12,000 to 20,000_,
which is about a two months' laying. Schirach says that _a single queen
will lay from 70,000 to 100,000 eggs in a season_. This sounds like a
great number; but it is greatly exceeded by some other insects. The
female of the white ant extrudes not less than 60 eggs in a minute, which
gives 3600 in an hour, 86,400 in a day, 2,419,200 in a lunar month, and
the enormous number of 211,449,600 in a year. Though she does not lay all
the year probably, yet, setting the period as low as possible, her eggs
will exceed the number produced by any other known animal in creation.
If the _impregnation_ of a queen be by any means _retarded_ beyond the
20th or 21st day of her life, a very extraordinary consequence ensues.
Instead of first laying the eggs of workers, and those of drones, at
the usual period afterwards, she begins from the 45th hour to lay the
latter, and lays no other kind during her whole life. It should seem
as if the rudiments of the workers' eggs withered in the oviducts, but
without obstructing the passage of the drones' eggs. The only known fact
analogous to this is the state of certain vegetable seeds, which lose
the faculty of germination from age, whatever care may have been taken
to preserve them. This retardation seems to have a singular effect upon
the whole animal œconomy of the queen. "The bodies of those queens,"
says Huber, "whose impregnation has been retarded, are shorter than
common; the extremities remain slender, whilst the first two rings, next
the thorax, are uncommonly swollen." In consequence of the shortening
of their bodies, their eggs are frequently laid on the sides of the
cells, owing probably to their not being able to reach the bottom; the
difficulty is also increased by the two swollen rings. In these cases
of retarded impregnation and exclusive laying of drones' eggs, the
prosperity of the hive soon terminates; generally before the end of the
queen's laying. The workers receiving no addition to their number, but
on the contrary, finding themselves overwhelmed with drones, sacrifice
their queen and abandon the hive. These retarded queens seem to have
their instincts impaired; for they deposit their eggs indiscriminately
in the cells, whether originally intended for drones or for workers,--a
circumstance which materially affects the size of the drones that
are reared in them. There are not wanting instances of royal cells
being occupied by them, and of the workers being thereby so completely
deceived as to pay the tenants, in all respects, the honours of royalty.
This circumstance appears the more extraordinary, since it has been
ascertained that when eggs have been thus inappropriately deposited, by
fertile workers, they are uniformly destroyed a few days afterwards,
though for a short time they receive due attention.
The workers have been supposed by some apiarians to transport the eggs
from place to place;--if ever such were the case, this would seem to
be an occasion calling for the practice: on the contrary, instead of
removing the eggs from the sides to the bottoms of the cells, for the
sake of better accommodation, this object is accomplished by their
lengthening the cells, and advancing them two lines beyond the surface
of the combs. This proceeding affords pretty good evidence that _the
transportation of eggs_ forms no part of the workers' occupation. It is
still further proved by their eating any workers' eggs, that a queen may,
at any time, be forced to deposit in drones' cells, or drop at random
in other parts of the hive; a circumstance which escaped the notice
of former naturalists, and misled them in their opinion respecting
transportation. A somewhat similar circumstance was noticed by Mr. Dunbar
in his mirror hive. (For an account of this hive see Chap. X.) Mr. Dunbar
observed that whenever the queen dropped her eggs carelessly, they were
eagerly devoured by the workers. Now if transportation formed a part of
their employment, they would in these cases, instead of eating the eggs,
have deposited them in their appropriate cells. It seems very evident
therefore that the proper disposition of the eggs is left entirely to the
instinct of the queens. The workers having been seen to run away with
the eggs, in order to devour them, in all probability gave birth to the
mistaken notion that they were removing them to their right cells. Among
humble-bees, there is a disposition, among the workers, to eat the eggs,
which extends even to those that are laid in proper cells, where the
queens often have to contend for their preservation.
After the season of swarming, viz. towards the end of July, as is well
known, a general _massacre of the drones_ takes place. The business of
fecundation being now completed, they are regarded as useless consumers
of the fruits of others labour, "fruges consumere nati;" love is at
once converted into furious hate, and a general proscription takes
place. The unfortunate victims evidently perceive their danger; for
they are never, at this time, seen resting in one place, but darting
in or out of the hive, with the utmost precipitation, as if in fear
of being seized. Their destruction has been generally supposed to be
effected by the workers harassing them till they quit the hive: this
was the opinion of Mr. Hunter, who says the workers pinch them to and
fro, without stinging them, and he considers their death as a natural
rather than an untimely one. In this Bonnet seems to agree with Mr.
Hunter. But Huber has observed that _their destruction is effected by the
stings of the workers:_ he ascertained this by placing his hives upon
a glass table, as will be stated under the anatomy of the bee, article
"Sting." Reaumur seems to have been aware of this, for he has remarked
that "notwithstanding the superiority which the drones seem to have from
their bulk, they cannot hold out against the workers, who are armed with
a poniard which conveys poison into the wounds it makes." The moment this
formidable weapon has entered their bodies, they expand their wings and
expire. This sacrifice is not the consequence of a blind indiscriminating
instinct, for _if a hive be deprived of its queen, no massacre takes
place_, though the hottest persecution rage in all the surrounding
hives. This fact was observed by Bonner, who supposed the drones to be
preserved for the sake of the additional heat which they would generate
in the hive during winter; but according to Huber's theory, they are
preserved for the purpose of impregnating a new queen. The lives of the
drones are also spared in hives which possess fertile workers only,
but no proper queen, and likewise in hives governed by a queen whose
impregnation has been retarded; but under any other circumstances the
drones all disappear before winter. Not only all that have undergone
their full transformations, but every embryo, in whatever period of its
existence, shares the same fate. The workers drag them forth from the
cells, and after sucking the fluid from their bodies, cast them out of
the hive. In all these respects the hive-bees resemble wasps, but with
this difference; among the latter, not only are the males and the male
larvæ destroyed, but all the workers and their larvæ, (and the very combs
themselves,) are involved in one indiscriminate ruin, none remaining
alive during the winter but the queens, which lie dormant in various
holes and corners till the ensuing spring,--of course without food, for
they store none. The importance of destroying these mother wasps in the
spring will be noticed in another place.
Morier in his second journey through Persia (page 100) has recorded a
fact, which, though it did not come under his own immediate observation,
was related to him by a person on whose authority he could place full
reliance, and which is directly the reverse of what I have stated
respecting bees. It is, that among the locusts, when the female has done
laying, she is surrounded and killed by the males.