of individuals: the large females; the small females; the males; and
the workers.
The large _females_, like the female wasps, are the original founders
of their republics. They are often so large, that by the side of the
small ones or the workers, which in every other respect they exactly
resemble, they look like giants opposed to pygmies. They are excluded
from the pupa in the autumn; and pair in that season, with males
produced from the eggs of the small females. They pass the winter
under ground, and, as appears from an observation of M. P. Huber, in
a particular apartment, separate from the nest, and rendered warm
by a carpeting of moss and grass, but without any supply of food.
Early in the spring, (for they make their first appearance as soon
as the catkins of the sallows and willows are in flower,) like the
female wasps, they lay the foundations of a new colony without the
assistance of any neuters, which all perish before the winter. In
some instances however, if a conjecture of M. de la Billardière
be correct, these creatures have an assistant assigned to them.
He says, at this season (the approach of winter) he found in the
nest of _Bombus Sylvarum_ some old females and workers, whose wings
were fastened together to retain them in the nest by hindering them
from flying; these wings in each individual were fastened together
at the extremity, by means of some very brown wax applied above
and below[120]. This he conceives to be a precaution taken by the
other bees to oblige these individuals to remain in the nest and
take care of the brood that was next year to renew the population
of the colony. I feel, however, great hesitation in admitting this
conjecture, founded upon an insulated and perhaps an accidental fact.
For, in the first place, the young females that come forth in the
autumn, and not the old ones, are the founders of new colonies; and
their instinct directs them to fulfill the great laws of their nature
without such compulsion; and in the next, the workers are never known
to survive the cold of winter.
The employment of a large female, besides the care of the young
brood before described, and the collecting of honey and pollen, is
principally the construction of the cells in which her eggs are to be
laid; which M. P. Huber seems to think, though they often assist in
it, the workers are not able to complete by themselves. So rapid is
the female in this work, that to make a cell, fill it with pollen,
commit one or two eggs to it, and cover them in, requires only the
short space of half an hour. Her family at first consists only of
workers, which are necessary to assist her in her labours; these
appear in May and June: but the males and females are later, and
sometimes are not produced before August and September[121]. As in
the case of the hive-bee, the food of these several individuals
differs; for the grubs that will turn to workers are fed with honey
and pollen mixed, while those that are destined to be males and
females are supplied with pure honey.
The instinct of these larger females does not develop itself all at
once: for it is a remarkable fact, that when they are first hatched
in the autumn, not being in a condition to become mothers, they are
no object of jealousy to the small queens, (as we shall soon see they
are when engaged in oviposition,) and are employed in the ordinary
labours of the parent nest--that is, they collect honey and pollen,
and make wax; but they do not construct cells. The building instinct
seems as it were in suspense, and does not manifest itself till the
spring; when the maternal sentiment impels them at the same time to
lay eggs and to construct the cells in which they are to be deposited.
I have told you above, that amongst the wasps a _small_ kind of
_female_ has been discovered: this is the case also amongst the
humble-bees, in whose societies they are more readily detected: not
indeed by any observable difference between them and the workers,
but chiefly by the diversity of their instincts:--from the other
females they are distinguished solely by their diminutive size. Like
those of the wasps and hive-bees, these minor queens produce only
male eggs, which come out in time to fertilize the young females
that found the vernal colonies. M. P. Huber suspects that, as in the
case of the female bee, it is a different kind of food that develops
their ovaries, and so distinguishes them from the workers. They are
generally attended by a small number of males, who form their court.
M. Huber, watching at midnight the proceedings of a nest which he
kept under a glass, observed the inhabitants to be in a state of
great agitation: many of these bees were engaged in making a cell;
the queen-mother of the colony, as she may be called, who is always
extremely jealous of her pygmy rivals, came and drove them away
from the cell;--she in her turn was driven away by the others,
which pursued her, beating their wings with the utmost fury, to the
bottom of the nest. The cell was then constructed, and two of them
at the same time oviposited in it. The queen returned to the charge,
exhibiting similar signs of anger; and, chasing them away again, put
her head into the cell, when seizing the eggs that had been laid, she
was observed to eat them with great avidity. The same scene was again
renewed, with the same issue. After this, one of the small females
returned and covered the empty cells with wax. When the mother-queen
was removed, several of the small females contended for the cell with
indescribable rage, all endeavouring to lay their eggs in it at the
same time. These small females perish in the autumn.
The _males_ are usually smaller than the large females, and larger
than the small ones and workers. They may be known by their longer,
more filiform, and slenderer antennæ; by the different shape and by
the beard of their mandibles. Their posterior tibiæ also want the
_corbicula_ and _pecten_ that distinguish the individuals of the
other sex, and their posterior plantæ have no auricle. We learn from
Reaumur that the male humble-bees are not an idle race, but work in
concert with the rest to repair any damage or derangement that may
befall the common habitation.
The _workers_, which are the first fruits of the queen-mother's
vernal parturition, assist her, as soon as they are excluded from
the pupa, in her various labours. To them also is committed the
construction of the waxen vault that covers and defends the nest.
When any individual larva has spun its cocoon and assumed the pupa,
the workers remove all the wax from it; and as soon as it has
attained to its perfect state, which takes place in about five days,
the cocoons are used to hold honey or pollen. When the bees discharge
the honey into them upon their return from their excursions, they
open their mouths and contract their bodies, which occasions the
honey to fall into the reservoir. Sixty of these honey-pots are
occasionally found in a single nest, and more than forty are
sometimes filled in a day. In collecting honey, humble-bees, if
they cannot get at that contained in any flower by its natural
opening, will often make an aperture at the base of the corolla, or
even in the calyx, that they may insert their proboscis in the very
place where nature has stored up her nectar[122]. M. Huber relates
a singular anecdote of some hive-bees paying a visit to a nest of
humble-bees placed under a box not far from their hive, in order
to steal or beg their honey; which places in a strong light the
good temper of the latter. This happened in a time of scarcity. The
hive-bees, after pillaging, had taken almost entire possession of
the nest. Some humble-bees which remained in spite of this disaster,
went out to collect provisions; and bringing home the surplus after
they had supplied their own immediate wants, the hive-bees followed
them, and did not quit them till they had obtained the fruit of
their labours. They licked them, presented to them their proboscis,
surrounded them, and thus at last persuaded them to part with the
contents of their honey-bags. The humble-bees after this flew away
to collect a fresh supply. The hive-bees did them no harm, and
never once showed their stings;--so that it seems to have been
persuasion rather than force that produced this singular instance of
self-denial. This remarkable manœuvre was practised for more than
three weeks; when the wasps being attracted by the same cause, the
humble-bees entirely forsook the nest[123].
The workers are the most numerous part of the community, but are
nothing when compared with the numbers to be found in a vespiary
or a beehive:--two or three hundred is a large population for a
humble-bees nest; in some species it not being more than fifty
or sixty.--They may more easily be studied than either wasps or
hive-bees, as they seem not to be disturbed or interrupted in their
works by the eye of an observer[124].
I am, &c.
FOOTNOTES:
[115] Huber, _Nouv. Observ._ ii. 443.
[116] VOL. I. p. 501.
[117] For 1807, 242--.
[118] Ibid. 243.
[119] _Bombus. Apis_ * *. e. 2. K.
[120] _Mémoires du Muséum_, &c. i. 55.
[121] P. Huber, in _Linn. Trans._ vi. 264.--This author says however
in another place (_ibid._ 285), that the male eggs are laid in the
spring, at the same time with those that are to produce workers.
Perhaps by the former he means the male offspring of the small
females, and by the latter those of the large?
[122] Hub. _Nouv. Observ._ ii. 375.
[123] Ibid. 373--.
[124] This account of the proceedings of humble-bees is chiefly taken
from Reaumur, vi. _Mém._ l.; and M. P. Huber in _Linn. Trans._ vi. 214--.
LETTER XIX.
_SOCIETIES OF INSECTS._
PERFECT SOCIETIES CONTINUED. (_The Hive-bee_[125].)
The glory of an all-wise and omnipotent Creator, you will
acknowledge, is wonderfully manifested by the varied proceedings of
those social tribes of which I have lately treated: but it shines
forth with a brightness still more intense in the instincts that
actuate the common _hive-bee_ (_Apis mellifica_), and which I am next
to lay before you. Indeed, of all the insect associations, there are
none that have more excited the attention and admiration of mankind
in every age, or been more universally interesting, than the colonies
of these little useful creatures. Both Greek and Roman writers are
loud in their praise; nay, some philosophers were so enamoured of
them, that, as I observed before[126], they devoted a large portion
of their time to the study of their history. Whether the knowledge
they acquired was at all equivalent to the years that were spent in
the attainment of it, may be doubted: for, were it so, it is probable
that Aristotle and Pliny would have given a clearer and more
consistent account of the inhabitants of the hive than they have
done. Indeed had their discoveries borne any proportion to the long
tract of time asserted to have been employed by some in the study of
these insects, they ought to have rivalled, and even exceeded, those
of the Reaumurs and Hubers of our own age.
Numerous, and wonderful for their absurdity, were the errors and
fables which many of the ancients adopted and circulated with
respect to the generation and propagation of these busy insects. For
instance,--that they were sometimes produced from the putrid bodies
of oxen and lions; the kings and leaders from the brain, and the
vulgar herd from the flesh--a fable derived probably from swarms of
bees having been observed, as in the case of Samson[127], to take
possession of the dried carcases of these animals, or perhaps from
the myriads of flies (for the vulgar do not readily distinguish flies
from bees) often generated in their putrescent flesh. They adopted
another notion equally absurd; that these insects collect their young
progeny from the blossoms and foliage of certain plants. Amongst
others, the Cerinthus, the reed, and the olive-tree, had this virtue
of generating infant bees attributed to them[128]. These specimens of
ancient credulity will suffice.
But do not think that all the ancients imbibed such monstrous
opinions. Aristotle's sentiments seem to have been much more
correct, and not very wide of what some of our best modern apiarists
have advanced. According to him, the kings (so he denominates the
queen-bee) generate both kings and workers; and the latter the
drones. This he seems to have learned from keepers of bees. The
kings, says he in another place, are the parents of the bees, and
the drones their children. It is right, he observes again, that
the kings (which by some were called mothers) should remain within
the hive unfettered by any employment, because they are made for
the multiplication of the species[129]. To the same purpose Riem
of Lauten of the _Palatinate Apiarian Society_, and Wilhelmi of
the _Lusatian_, affirm that the queen lays the eggs which produce
the queens and workers; and the workers those that produce the
drones or males[130]. Aristotle also tells us, that some in his
time affirmed that the bees (the workers) were the females, and the
drones the males: an opinion which he combats from an analogy pushed
rather too far, that nature would never give offensive armour to
females[131]. In another place he appears to think that the workers
are hermaphrodites:--his words are remarkable, and seem to indicate
that he was aware of the sexes of plants: "having in themselves,"
says he, "_like plants_, the male and the female[132]."
Fables and absurdities, however, are not confined to the ancients, nor
even to those moderns who lived before Swammerdam, Maraldi, Reaumur,
Bonnet, Schirach, John Hunter, Huber, and their followers, by their
observations and discoveries had thrown so much light upon this
interesting subject. Even in our own times, a Neapolitan professor,
Monticelli, asserts, on the authority of a certain father Tanoya,
that in every hive there are three sorts of bees independent of each
other; viz. male and female drones--male and female, I must not say
_queens_--call them what you will: and male and female workers; and
that each construct their own cells!!! Enough, however, upon this
subject. I shall now endeavour to lay before you the best authenticated
facts in the history of these animals; but you must not expect an
account of them complete in all its parts; for, much as we know,
Bonnet's observation will still hold good: "The more I am engaged
in making fresh observations upon bees, the more steadfast is my
conviction, that the time is not yet arrived in which we can draw
satisfactory conclusions with respect to their policy. It is only by
varying and combining experiments in a thousand ways, and by placing
these industrious flies in circumstances more or less removed from
their ordinary state, that we can hope to ascertain the right direction
of their instinct, and the true principles of their government[133]."
What I have further to say concerning these admirable creatures, will
be principally taken from the two authors who have given the clearest
and most satisfactory account of them, Reaumur and the elder Huber;
though I shall add from other sources such additional observations as
may serve better to elucidate their history.
The society of a hive of bees, besides the young brood, consists of
one female or queen; several hundreds of males or drones; and many
thousand workers.
The _female_, or queen, first demands our attention. Two sorts
of females have been observed amongst the bees, a large one and
a small. Mr. Needham was the first that observed the latter; and
their existence, M. P. Huber tells us, has been confirmed by several
observations of his father. They are bred in cells as large as those
of the common queens, from which they differ only in size. Though
they have ovaries, they have never been observed to lay eggs[134].
Having never seen one of these, for they are of very rare occurrence,
my description must be confined to the common female, the genuine
monarch of the hive[135].
There are two descriptions of males--one not bigger than the workers,
supposed to be produced from a male egg laid in a worker's cell. The
common males are much larger, and will counterpoise two workers.
I have before observed to you that there are two sorts of workers,
the wax-makers and nurses[138]. They may also be further divided into
fertile and sterile[139]: for some of them, which in their infancy
are supposed to have partaken of some portion of the royal jelly,
lay male eggs. There is found in some hives, according to Huber, a
kind of bees, which from having less down upon the head and thorax
appear blacker than the others, by whom they are always expelled
from the hive, and often killed. Perfect ovaries, upon dissection,
were discovered in these bees, though not furnished with eggs. This
discovery induced M^{lle} Jurine, the lady who dissected them, to
examine the common workers in the same way; and she found in all that
she examined, what had escaped Swammerdam, perfect though sterile
ovaries[140]. It is worth inquiry, though M. Huber gives no hint
of this kind, whether these were not in fact superannuated bees,
that could no longer take part in the labours of the hive. Thorley
remarks, which confirms this idea, that if you closely observe a hive
of bees in July, you may perceive many amongst them of a dark colour,
with wings rent and torn; but that in September not one of them is
to be seen[141]. Huber does not say whether the wings of the bees in
question were lacerated; but in superannuated insects the hair is
often rubbed off the body, which gives them a darker hue than that of
more recent individuals of the same species. Should this conjecture
turn out true, their banishment and destruction of the seniors of the
hive would certainly not show our little creatures in a very amiable
point of view. Yet it seems the law of their nature to rid their
community of all supernumerary and useless members, as is evident
from their destruction of the drones after their work is done.
It is not often that insects have been weighed; but Reaumur's
curiosity was excited to know the weight of bees; and he found that
336 weighed an ounce, and 5376 a pound. According to John Hunter, an
ale-house pint contains 2160 workers.
I have described to you the persons of the different individuals that
compose the society of the bee-hive more in detail than I should
otherwise have done, in order that you may be the better able to form
a judgement upon a most extraordinary circumstance in their history,
which is supported by evidence that seems almost incontrovertible.
The fact to which I allude is this--that if the bees are deprived
of their queen, and are supplied with comb containing young worker
brood only, they will select one or more to be educated as queens;
which, by having a royal cell erected for their habitation, and being
fed with royal jelly for not more than two days, when they emerge
from the pupa state (though, if they had remained in the cells which
they originally inhabited, they would have turned out workers) will
come forth complete queens, with their form, instincts, and powers
of generation entirely different. In order to produce this effect,
the grub must not be more than three days old; and this is the age
at which, according to Schirach, (the first apiarist who called the
public attention to this miracle of nature,) the bees usually elect
the larvæ to be royally educated; though it appears from Huber's
observations, that a larva two days or even twenty-four hours old
will do[142].--Having chosen a grub, they remove the inhabitants and
their food from two of the cells which join that in which it resides;
they next take down the partitions which separate these three cells;
and, leaving the bottoms untouched, raise round the selected worm
a cylindrical tube, which follows the horizontal direction of the
other cells: but since at the close of the third day of its life its
habitation must assume a different form and direction, they gnaw
away the cells below it, and sacrifice without pity the grubs they
contain, using the wax of which they were formed to construct a new
pyramidal tube, which they join at right angles to the horizontal
one, the diameter of the former diminishing insensibly from its base
to its mouth. During the two days which the grub inhabits this cell,
like the common royal cells now become vertical[143], a bee may
always be observed with its head plunged into it; and when one quits
it another takes its place. These bees keep lengthening the cell as
the worm grows older, and duly supply it with food, which they place
before its mouth, and round its body. The animal, which can only
move in a spiral direction, keeps incessantly turning to take the
jelly deposited before it; and thus slowly working downwards, arrives
insensibly near the orifice of the cell, just at the time that it is
ready to assume the pupa; when, as before described, the workers shut
up its cradle with an appropriate covering[144].
When you have read this account, I fear, with the celebrated John
Hunter, you will not be very ready to believe it, at least you will
call upon me to bring forth my "strong reasons" in support of it.
What!--you will exclaim--can a larger and warmer house (for the
royal cells are affirmed to enjoy a higher temperature than those
of the other bees[145]), a different and more pungent kind of food,
and a vertical instead of a horizontal posture, in the first place,
give a bee a differently shaped tongue and mandibles; render the
surface of its posterior tibiæ flat instead of concave; deprive
them of the fringe of hairs that forms the basket for carrying the
masses of pollen; of the auricle and pecten which enable the workers
to use these tibiæ as pincers[146]; of the brush that lines the
inside of their plantæ? Can they lengthen its abdomen; alter its
colour and clothing; give a curve to its sting; deprive it of its
wax-pockets, and of the vessels for secreting that substance; and
render its ovaries more conspicuous, and capable of yielding female
as well as male eggs? Can, in the next place, the seemingly trivial
circumstances just enumerated altogether alter the instinct of these
creatures? Can they give to one description of animals address and
industry; and to the other astonishing fecundity? Can we conceive
them to change the very passions, tempers, and manners? That the very
same fœtus if fed with more pungent food, in a higher temperature
and in a vertical position, shall become a female destined to enjoy
love, to burn with jealousy and anger, to be incited to vengeance,
and to pass her time without labour--that this very same fœtus,
if fed with more simple food, in a lower temperature, in a more
confined and horizontal habitation, shall come forth a worker
zealous for the good of the community, a defender of the public
rights, enjoying an immunity from the stimulus of sexual appetite
and the pains of parturition--laborious, industrious, patient,
ingenious, skilful--incessantly engaged in the nurture of the young;
in collecting honey and pollen; in elaborating wax; in constructing
cells, and the like!--paying the most respectful and assiduous
attention to objects which, had its ovaries been developed, it would
have hated and pursued with the most vindictive fury till it had
destroyed them! Further, that these factitious queens (I mean those
that the bees elect from amongst worker brood, and educate to supply
the place of a lost one in the manner just described) shall differ
remarkably from the natural queens, (or those that have been wholly
educated in a royal cell,) in being altogether mute[147]--. All this,
you will think at first sight, so improbable, and next to impossible,
that you will require the strongest and most irrefragable evidence
before you will believe it.