[Illustration]
The Reverend Charles Cotton, while he lived the prince of bee-masters,
thus represents the queen and her attendant ladies:--
[Illustration]
The queen is the central bee; the surrounding bees are her
ladies-in-waiting, and the white specks the eggs she has deposited.
The queen-bee is a model keeper at home, rarely leaving the hive. Most
apiarians are interested at present in the habits and acclimatisation of
the Ligurian bee--the _Apis Ligustica_, or Italian bee. It is found easy
to substitute an Italian for a British queen, in a British hive which
has been deprived of its native sovereign. The bees refuse to constitute
themselves into a republic, and therefore they will accept even a foreign
queen, who, no doubt, takes the oaths and obligations of the realm over
which she is to reign. There is a red tinge in the rings that surround the
abdomen of this foreigner; and, contrary to what we should expect in an
Italian temperament, the Ligurian bee is more gentle and conciliatory than
our native queen. I speak from report, not from personal knowledge. But I
hope one day to be present at a _levée_, and become better acquainted with
the royal foreigner.
Lardner gives the following account of two queens, from Huber. Huber
placed a piece of comb having three royal cells in a hive in which the
queen was laying eggs. The moment she saw them she attacked them, laid
them open, and commanded her attendants to destroy them. These instantly
tore out the royal nymphs, and devoured the food destined for their use.
He then introduced a stranger queen, pregnant with eggs, marking her so as
to be able to identify her.
"Immediately on her appearance the workers collected in a crowd around
her, and formed as usual a circle of which she was the centre, the
heads of all the remaining crowd being directed towards her. This very
soon became so dense that she became an absolute prisoner within it.
"While this was going on, a similar ring was formed by another group
of workers round the queen-regnant, so that she was likewise for the
moment a prisoner.
"The two queens being thus in view of each other, if either evinced
a disposition to approach and attack the other, the two rings were
immediately opened, so as to give a free passage to the combatants;
but the moment they showed a disposition to fly from each other,
the rings were again closed, so as to retain them on the spot they
occupied.
"At length the queen-regnant resolved on the conflict, and the
surrounding crowd, seeming to be conscious of her decision,
immediately cleared a passage for her to the place where the stranger
stood perched on the comb. She threw herself with fury on the latter,
seized her by the root of the wing, and fixed her against the comb so
as to deprive her of all power of movement or resistance, and then
bending her abdomen, inflicted a mortal stab with her sting, and put
an end to the intruder.
"A fruitful queen full of eggs was next placed upon one of the combs
of a hive over which a virgin queen already reigned. She immediately
began to drop her eggs, but not in the cells; nor did the workers, by
a circle of whom she was closely surrounded, take charge of them; but,
since no trace of them could be discovered, it is probable that they
were devoured.
"The group, by which this intruding queen was surrounded, having
opened a way for her, she moved towards the edge of the comb, where
she found herself close to the place occupied by the legitimate virgin
queen. The moment they perceived each other, they rushed together with
ungovernable fury. The virgin, mounting on the back of the intruder,
stabbed her several times in the abdomen, but failed to penetrate the
scaly covering of the segments. The combatants then, exhausted for
the moment, disengaged themselves and retired. After an interval of
some minutes they returned to the charge, and this time the intruder
succeeded in mounting on the back of the virgin and giving her several
stabs with her sting, which, however, failed to penetrate the flesh.
The virgin queen, succeeding in disengaging herself, again retired.
Another round succeeded, with the like results, the virgin still
coming undermost, and, after disengaging herself, again retiring. The
combat appeared for some time doubtful, the rival queens being so
nearly equal in strength and power; when at last, by a lucky chance,
the virgin sovereign inflicted a mortal wound upon the intruder, who
fell dead on the spot.
"In this case, the sting of the virgin was buried so deep in the flesh
of her opponent, that she found it impossible to withdraw it, and any
attempt to do so by direct force would have been fatal to her. After
many fruitless efforts, she at length adopted the following ingenious
expedient with complete success. Instead of exerting her force on the
sting by a direct pull, she turned herself round, giving herself a
rotatory motion on the extremity of her abdomen where the sting had
its insertion, as a pivot. In this way she gradually unscrewed the
sting."
Another very interesting incident is related by Huber. It is described by
Lardner:--
"The first work which the population undertakes, after being assured
of the loss of its queen, is directed to obtain a successor to her. If
there be not royal cells prepared, they set about their construction.
While this work was in progress, and in twenty-four hours after their
queen had been taken from them, Huber introduced into the hive a
fruitful queen in the prime of life, being eleven months old. Not
less than twelve royal cells had been already commenced and were in a
forward state. The moment the strange queen was placed on one of the
combs, one of the most curious scenes commenced which was probably
ever witnessed in the animal world, and which has been described by
Huber.
"The bees who happened to be near the stranger approached her, touched
her with their antennæ, passed their probosces over all parts of
her body, and presented her with honey. Then they retired, giving
place to others, who approached in their turn and went through the
same ceremony. All the bees who proceeded thus clapped their wings
in retiring, and ranged themselves in a circle round her, each, as
it completed the ceremony, taking a position behind those who had
previously offered their respects. A general agitation was soon
spread on those sides of the combs corresponding with that of the
scene here described. From all quarters the bees crowded to the spot,
and each group of fresh arrivals broke their way through the circle,
approached the new aspirant to the throne, touched her with their
antennæ and probosces, offered her honey, and, in fine, took their
rank outside the circle previously formed. The bees forming this sort
of court circle clapped their wings from time to time, and fluttered
apparently with self-gratification, but without the least sign of
disorder or tumult.
"At the end of fifteen or twenty minutes from the commencement of
these proceedings the queen, who had hitherto remained stationary,
began to move. Far from opposing her progress or hemming her in, as in
the cases formerly described, the bees opened the circle on the side
to which she directed her steps, followed her, and, ranging themselves
on either side of her path, lined the road in the same manner as is
done by military bodies in state processions. She soon began to lay
drone eggs, for which she sought and found the proper cells in the
combs which had been already constructed.
"While these things were passing on the side of the comb where the
new queen had been placed, all remained perfectly tranquil on
the opposite side. It seemed as though the bees on that side were
profoundly ignorant of the arrival of a new queen on the opposite
side. They continued to work assiduously at the royal cells, the
construction of which had been commenced on that side of the comb,
just as if they were ignorant that they had no longer need of them;
they tended the grubs in those cells where the eggs had been already
hatched, supplying them as usual, from time to time, with royal jelly.
But at length the new queen in her progress arriving at that side of
the comb, she was received by those bees with the same homage and
devotion of which she had been already the object at the other side.
They approached her, coaxed her with their antennæ and probosces,
offered her honey, formed a court circle round her when she was
stationary, and a hedge at either side of her path when she moved, and
proved how entirely they acknowledged her sovereignty by discontinuing
their labour at the royal cells, which they had commenced before her
arrival, and from which they now removed the eggs and grubs, and ate
the provisions which they had collected in them.
"From this moment the queen reigned supreme over the hive, and was
treated in all respects as if she had ascended the throne in right of
inheritance."