this astonishing and seemingly incredible fact rests upon strong
foundations, and is established by experiments made at different
times, by different persons of the highest credit, in different parts
of Europe. The first who brought it before the public (as I lately
observed) was M. Schirach, secretary of an Apiarian Society established
at Little Bautzen in Upper Lusatia. He observed, that bees when shut up
with a portion of comb, containing only worker brood, would soon erect
royal cells, and thus obtain queens:--the experiment was frequently
repeated, and the result was almost uniformly the same. In one
instance he tried it with a single cell, and it succeeded[148]. This
curious fact was communicated to the celebrated Bonnet, who, though he
hesitated long before he admitted it, was at length fully convinced. M.
Wilhelmi (Schirach's brother-in-law), though at first he accounted for
the fact upon other principles, and objected strongly to the doctrine
in question, induced by the powerful evidence in favour of it, at
last gave up his former opinion, and embraced it. And, to mention no
more, the great Aristomachus of modern times, M. Huber, by experiments
repeated for ten years, was fully convinced of the truth of Schirach's
position[149].
The fact in question, though the public attention was first called
to it by the latter gentleman, had indeed been practically known
long before he wrote. M. Vogel, in a letter to Wilhelmi, asserts
that numerous experiments confirming this extraordinary fact had
been made by more than a hundred different persons, in the course
of more than a hundred years; and that he himself had known old
cultivators of bees who had unanimously declared to him, that, when
proper precautions were taken, in a practice of more than fifty
years, the experiment had never failed[150]. Signor Monticelli, the
Neapolitan professor before mentioned, informs us that the Greeks and
Turks of the Ionian Islands know how to make artificial swarms; and
that the art of producing queens at will has been practised by the
inhabitants of a little Sicilian island called Favignana, from very
remote antiquity; and he even brings arguments to prove that it was
no secret to the Greeks and Romans[151], though had the practice been
common it would surely have been noticed by Aristotle and Pliny.
Bonner, a British apiarist, asserts that he has had successful
recourse to the Lusatian experiment[152]; and Mr. Payne of Shipdam
in Norfolk (who for many years has been engaged in the culture of
bees, and has paid particular attention to their proceedings) relates
that he well remembers that the bees of one of his hives, which he
discovered had lost their queen, were engaged in erecting some royal
cells upon the ruins of some of the common ones. He also informs
me that he has found Huber's statements, as far as he has had an
opportunity of verifying them, perfectly accurate[153].
As I think you will allow that the evidence just detailed to you is
abundantly sufficient to establish the fact in question, we will
now see whether any satisfactory account can be given for such
changes being produced by such causes. "It does not appear to me
improbable," says Bonnet, "that a certain kind of nutriment, and in
more than usual abundance, may cause a development in the grubs of
bees, of organs which would never be developed without it. I can
readily conceive also, that a habitation considerably more spacious,
and differently placed, is absolutely necessary to the complete
development of organs which the new nutriment may cause to grow in
all directions[154]." And again, with respect to the wings of the
queen bee, which do not exceed those of the workers in length, he
thinks that this may arise from their being of a substance too stiff
to admit of their extension. Those parts and points that were in a
state to yield most easily to the action which this kind of nutriment
produced, would be most prominent; and the vertical position of the
grub and pupa, since nature does nothing in vain, may probably assist
this action, and render the parts of the animal more capable of such
extension than if it continued in a horizontal position.
We know, with respect to the human species and the larger animals,
that numerous differences, both as to the form and relative
proportion of parts, occur continually. The cause of these
differences we cannot always ascertain; yet in many instances they
may either be derived from the nutriment which the embryo receives
in the womb, or from the greater or less dimensions or higher or
lower temperature of that organ--a case that analogically would not
be very wide of that of the grub or embryo of a bee inclosed in a
cell. Some of the differences in man I now allude to, may often be
caused by a particular diet in childhood; a warmer or a colder, a
looser or a tighter dress, or the like. Thus, for instance, the
Egyptians, who went bare-headed, had their skulls remarkably thick;
while the Persians, who covered the head with a turban or mitre,
were distinguished by the tenuity of theirs. Again, the inhabitants
of certain districts are often remarkable for peculiarities of form,
which are evidently produced by local circumstances.
The following reasoning may not be inapplicable to the development
or non-development, according to their food and habitation, of the
ovaries of these insects. An infant tightly swathed, as was formerly
the custom, in swaddling bands, without being allowed the free
play of its little limbs, fed with unwholesome food, or uncherished
by genial warmth, may from these circumstances have so imperfect
a development of its organs as to be in consequence devoted to
sterility. When a cow brings forth two calves, and one of them is a
female, it is always barren, and partakes in part of the characters
of the other sex[155]. In this instance, the space and food that in
ordinary cases are appropriated to one, are divided between two; so
that a more contracted dwelling and a smaller share of nutriment seem
to prevent the development of the ovaries.
The following observations, mostly taken from an essay of
the celebrated anatomist John Hunter, in the _Philosophical
Transactions_, since they are intimately connected with the subject
that we are now considering, will not be here misplaced. In animals
just born, or very young, there are no peculiarities of shape,
exclusive of the primary distinctions, by which one sex may be known
from the other. Thus secondary distinctive characters, such as the
beard in men, and the breasts in women, are produced at a certain
period of life; and these secondary characters, in some instances,
are changed for those of the other sex; which does not arise from
any action at the first formation, but takes place when the great
command "Increase and multiply" ceases to operate. Thus women in
advanced life are sometimes distinguished by beards; and after they
have done laying, hen-birds occasionally assume the plumage of the
cock; this has been observed more than once by ornithologists, more
particularly with respect to the pheasant and the pea-hen[156].--For
females to assume the secondary characters of males, seems certainly
a more violent change, than for a worker bee, which may be regarded
as a sterile female, in consequence of a certain process, to assume
the secondary characters of a fertile female.
With respect to the variations of instinct and character which result
from the different modes of rearing the young bees that we are now
considering; it would not, I think, be difficult to prove, that
causes at first sight equally inadequate have produced effects full
as important on the habits, tempers, and characters of men and other
animals: but as these will readily occur to you, I shall not now
enlarge upon them.
Did we know the causes of the various deviations, as to form and
the like, observable in the three kingdoms of nature, and could
apply them, we should be able to produce these deviations at our
pleasure. This is exactly what the bees do. Their instinct teaches
them that a certain kind of food, supplied to a grub inhabiting a
certain dwelling, in a certain position, will produce certain effects
upon it, rendering it different from what it would have been under
ordinary circumstances, and fitted to answer their peculiar wants.
I trust that these arguments and probabilities will in some degree
reconcile you to what at first sight seems so extraordinary and
extravagant a doctrine. If not yet fully satisfied, I can only
recommend your having recourse to experiments yourself. Leaving you
therefore to this best mode of proof, I shall proceed to another
part of my history:--but first I must mention an experiment of
Reaumur's, which seems to come well in here. To ascertain whether
the expectation of a queen was sufficient to keep alive the instinct
and industry of the worker-bees, he placed in a glazed hive some
royal cells containing both grubs and pupæ, and then introduced about
1000 or 1500 workers and some drones. These workers, which had been
deprived of their queen, at first destroyed some of the grubs in
these cells; but they clustered around two that were covered in, as
if to impart warmth to the pupæ they contained; and on the following
day they began to work upon the portions of comb with which he had
supplied them, in order to fix and lengthen them. For two or three
days the work went on very leisurely, but afterwards their labours
assumed their usual character of indefatigable industry[157]. There
is no difficulty, therefore, when a hive loses its sovereign, to
supply the bees with an object that will interest them, and keep
their works in progress.
There are a few other facts with respect to the larvæ and pupæ of
the bees, which, before I enter upon the history of them in their
perfect form, I shall now detail to you. Sixteen days is the time
assigned to a _queen_ for her existence in her preparatory states,
before she is ready to emerge from her cell. Three she remains in
the egg; when hatched she continues feeding five more; when covered
in she begins to spin her cocoon, which occupies another day: as if
exhausted by this labour, she now remains perfectly still for two
days and sixteen hours; and then assumes the pupa, in which state
she remains exactly four days and eight hours--making in all the
period I have just named. A longer time, by four days, is required to
bring the _workers_ to perfection; their preparatory states occupying
twenty days, and those of the _male_ even twenty-four. The former
consumes half a day more than the queen in spinning its cocoon,--a
circumstance most probably occasioned by a singular difference in
the structure and dimensions of this envelope, which I shall explain
to you presently. Thus you see that the peculiar circumstances which
change the form and functions of a bee, accelerate its appearance as
a perfect insect; and that by choosing a grub three days old, when
the bees want a queen, they actually gain six days; for in this case
she is ready to come forth in ten days, instead of sixteen, which
would be required, was a recently laid egg fixed upon[158].
The larvæ of bees, though without feet, are not altogether without
motion. They advance from their first station at the bottom of the
cell, as I before hinted, in a spiral direction. This movement, for
the first three days, is so slow as to be scarcely perceptible; but
after this 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[159]. 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.
A most remarkable difference, as I lately observed, takes place in
spinning their cocoons,--the grubs of workers and drones spinning
complete cocoons, while those that are spun by the females are
incomplete, or open at the lower end, and covering only the head
and trunk and the first segment of the abdomen. This variation is
probably occasioned by the different forms of the cells; for, if a
female larva be placed in a worker's cell, it will spin a complete
cocoon; and, _vice versâ_, if a worker larva be placed in a royal
cell, its cocoon will be incomplete[160]. No provision of the Great
Author of nature is in vain. In the present instance, the fact which
we are considering is of great importance to the bees; for, were
the females wholly covered by the thick texture of a cocoon, their
destruction by their rival competitors for the throne could not so
readily be accomplished; they either would not be able to reach them
with their stings, or the stings might be detained by their barbs in
the meshes of the cocoon, so that they would not be able to disengage
them. On the use of this instinctive and murderous hatred of their
rivals I shall soon enlarge.
When our young prisoners are ready to emerge, they do not, like
the ants, require the assistance of the workers, but themselves
eat through the cocoon and the cell that incloses it. By a wise
provision, which prevents the injury or destruction of a cell, they
generally make their way through the cover or lid with which the
workers had shut it up; though sometimes, but not often, a female
will break through the side of her prison.
Having thus shown you our little chemists in their preparatory states,
and carried you from the egg to the cocoon, both of which may be
deemed a kind of cradle, in which they are nursed to fit them for two
very different conditions of existence, I must now introduce you to a
scene more interesting and diversified; in which all their wonderful
instincts are displayed in full action, and we see them exceed some of
the most vaunted products of human wisdom, art, and skill.
* * * * *
The _queen-mother_ here demands our first attention, as the personage
upon whom, when established in her regal dignity, the welfare and
happiness of the apiarian community altogether depend. I shall begin
my history with the events that befall her on her quitting the
royal cradle and appearing in the perfect state. And here you will
find that the first moments of her life, prior to her election to
lead a swarm or fill a vacant throne, are moments of the greatest
uneasiness and vexation, if not of extreme peril and vindictive and
mortal warfare. The Homeric maxim, that "the government of many
is not good[161]," is fully adopted and rigorously adhered to in
these societies. The jealous Semiramis of the hive will bear no
rival near her throne. There are usually not less than sixteen, and
sometimes not less than twenty, royal cells in the same nest; you
may therefore conceive what a sacrifice is made when one only is
suffered to live and to reign. But here a distinction obtains which
should not be overlooked: in some instances a single queen only is
wanted to govern her native hive; in others several are necessary to
lead the swarms. In the first case, inevitable death is the lot of
all but one; in the other, as many as are wanted are preserved from
destruction by the precautions taken on that occasion, under the
direction of an all-wise Providence, by the workers.
I shall enlarge a little on each of these cases. In the formicary, as
we have seen, rival queens live together very harmoniously without
molesting each other: but there is that instinctive jealousy in a
queen bee, that no sooner does she discover the existence of another
in the hive, than she is put into a state of the most extreme
agitation, and is not easy until she has attacked and destroyed her.
Naturalists had observed, that when there were two queens in the
same hive, one of them soon perished; but some supposed (this was
the opinion of Schirach and Riem) that the workers destroyed the
supernumeraries. Reaumur, however, conjectured that these queens
attacked each other; and his conjecture has been since confirmed
by the actual observation of other naturalists. Blassiere, the
translator of Schirach, tells us, as what he had himself witnessed,
that the strongest queen kills her rival with her sting; and the same
is asserted by Huber, whose opportunities of observation were greater
than those of any of his precursors[162].
The queen that is first liberated from her confinement, and has assumed
the perfect or imago state (it is to be supposed that the author is
here speaking of a hive which has lost the old queen), soon after this
event goes to visit the royal cells that are still inhabited. She darts
with fury upon the first with which she meets; by means of her jaws
she gnaws a hole large enough to introduce the end of her abdomen,
and with her sting, before the included female is in a condition to
defend herself or resist her attack, she gives her a mortal wound. The
workers, who remain passive spectators of this assassination, after
she quits the victim of her jealousy, enlarge the breach that she has
made, and drag forth the carcase of a queen just emerged from the
thin membrane that envelopes the pupa. If the object of her attack be
still in the pupa state, she is stimulated by a less violent degree of
rage, and contents herself with making a breach in the cell: when this
happens, the death of the inclosed insect is equally certain, for the
workers enlarge the breach, pull it out, and it perishes[163]. If it
happens, as it sometimes does, that two queens are disclosed at the
same time, the care of Providence to prevent the hive from being wholly
despoiled of a governor is singularly manifested by a remarkable trait
in their instinct, which, when mutual destruction seems inevitable,
makes them separate from each other as if panic-struck. "Two young
queens," says M. Huber, "left their cells one day, almost at the same
moment;--as soon as they came within sight, they darted upon each
other, as if inflamed by the most ungovernable anger, and placed
themselves in such an attitude, that the antennæ of each were held by
the jaws of its antagonist; head was opposed to head, trunk to trunk,
abdomen to abdomen; and they had only to bend the extremity of the
latter, and they would have fallen reciprocal victims to each other's
sting." But nature having decreed that these duels should not be fatal
to both combatants, as soon as they were thus circumstanced a panic
fear seemed to strike them, and they disengaged themselves, and each
fled away. After a few minutes were expired, the attack was renewed
in a similar manner with the same issue; till at last one suddenly
seizing the other by her wing, mounted upon her and inflicted a mortal
wound[164].
The combats I have here described to you took place between virgin
queens; but M. Huber found that those which had been impregnated
were actuated by the same animosity, and attacked royal cells with
a fury equally destructive. When another fertile queen had been
introduced into this hive, a singular scene ensued, which proves
how well aware the workers are that they cannot prosper with two
sovereigns. Soon after she was introduced, a circle of bees was
formed round the stranger, not to compliment her on her arrival, or
pay her the usual homage, but to confine her, and prevent her escape;
for they insensibly agglomerated themselves in such numbers round
her, and hemmed her in so closely, that in about a minute she was
completely a prisoner. While this was transacting, what was equally
remarkable, other workers assembled in clusters round the legitimate
queen, and impeded all her motions; so that soon she was not more
at liberty than the intruder. It seemed as if the bees foresaw the
combat that was to ensue between the two rivals, and were impatient
for the event; for they only confined them when they appeared to
avoid each other. To witness the homage, respect and love that they
usually manifest to their lawful ruler; the anxiety concerning her
which they often exhibit: and the distrust which for a time (as we
shall see hereafter) they usually show towards strange ones even when
deprived of their own; one would expect that, rather than permit
such a perilous combat, they would unite in the defence of their
sovereign, and cause the interloper to perish under the stroke of
their fatal stings. But no; the contest for empire must be between
the rival candidates: no worker must interfere in any other way than
that which I have described; no contending armies must fight the
battles of their sovereigns, for the law of succession seems to be
"_detur fortiori_." But to return to my narrative. The legitimate
queen appearing inclined to move towards that part of the comb on
which her rival was stationed, the bees immediately began to retire
from the space that intervened between them, so that there was soon
a clear arena for the combat. When they could discern each other,
the rightful queen rushing furiously upon the pretender, seized her
with her jaws near the root of the wings, and, after fixing her
without power of motion against the comb, with one stroke of her
sting dispatched her. If ever-so-many queens are introduced into a
hive, all but one will perish, and that one will have won the throne
by her own unassisted valour and strength. Sometimes a strange queen
attempts of herself to enter a hive: in this case the workers, who
are upon the watch and who examine every thing that presents itself,
immediately seize her with their jaws by the legs or wings, and hem
her in so straitly with a clustered circle of guards, turning their
heads on all sides towards her, that it is impossible for her to
penetrate within. If they retain her prisoner too long, she dies
either from the want of food or air, but never from their stings[165].
Here you may perhaps feel curious to know, supposing the reigning
queen to die or be killed, and the bees to have discovered their
loss, whether they would then receive a foreigner that offers herself
to them or is introduced amongst them. Reaumur says they would do
this immediately[166]; but Huber, who had better means of observing
them, and studied them with more undivided attention, affirms that
this will not be the case, unless twenty-four hours have elapsed
since the death of the old queen. Previously to this period, as if
they were absorbed by grief at their calamity, or indulged a fond
hope of her revival, an intruder would be treated exactly as I have
described. But when the period just mentioned is passed, they will
receive any queen that is presented to them with the customary
homage, and she may occupy the vacant throne[167].
I must now beg you to attend to what takes place in the second case
that I mentioned, where queens are wanted to lead forth swarms.
Here you will, with reason, suppose that nature has instilled some
instinct into the bees, by which these necessary individuals are
rescued from the fury of the reigning sovereign.