part II
, chap. 27, note 7_. But you are sensible, Sir, from these details, that he has been mistaken. He did not know the attention that bees bestow on what passes at the entrance of their hive, and he was entirely ignorant of the means they take to prevent supernumerary queens from penetrating it.
* * * * *
After ascertaining that the workers in no situation sting the supernumerary queens, we were curious to learn how a stranger queen would be received in a hive wanting a reigning one. To elucidate this matter, we made numerous experiments, the detail of which would protract this letter too much, therefore I shall relate only the principal results.
Bees do not immediately observe the removal of their queen; their labours are uninterrupted; they watch over the young, and perform all their ordinary occupations. But, in a few hours, agitation ensues; all appears a scene of tumult in the hive. A singular humming is heard; the bees desert their young; and rush over the surface of the combs with a delirious impetuosity. Then they discover their queen is no longer among them. But how do they become sensible of it? How do the bees on the surface of the comb discover that the queen is not on the next comb? In treating of another characteristic of these animals, you have yourself, Sir, proposed the same question; I am incapable of answering it indeed, but I have collected some facts, that may perhaps facilitate the elucidation of this mystery.
I cannot doubt that the agitation arises from the workers having lost their queen; for on restoring her, tranquillity is instantly regained among them; and, what is very singular, they _recognise_ her: you must interpret this expression strictly. Substitution of another queen is not attended with the same effect, if she is introduced into the hive within the first twelve hours after removal of the reigning one. Here the agitation continues; and the bees treat the stranger the same as when the presence of their own leaves them nothing to desire. They surround, seize, and keep her captive, a very long time, in an impenetrable cluster; and she commonly dies either from hunger or privation of air.
If eighteen hours elapse before substitution of a stranger queen for the native one removed, she is at first treated in the same manner, but the bees leave her sooner; nor is the surrounding cluster so close; they gradually disperse; and the queen is at last liberated. She moves languidly; and sometimes expires in a few minutes. However some queens have escaped in good health from an imprisonment of seventeen hours; and ended with reigning in the hives where they had originally been ill received.
If, before substituting the stranger queen, twenty-four hours elapse, she will be well received, and reign from the moment of her introduction into the hive. Here I speak of the good reception given to a queen after an interregnum of twenty-four hours. But as this word reception is very indefinite, it is proper to enter into some detail for explaining the exact sense in which I use it. On the 15. of August, I introduced a fertile queen, eleven months old, into a glass hive. The bees were twenty-four hours deprived of their queen, and had already begun the construction of twelve royal-cells, such as described in the preceding chapter. Immediately on placing this female stranger on the comb, the workers near her touched her with their antennæ, and, passing their trunks over every part of her body, they gave her honey. Then these gave place to others that treated her exactly in the same manner. All vibrated their wings at once, and ranged themselves in a circle around their sovereign. Hence resulted a kind of agitation which gradually communicated to the workers situated on the same surface of the comb, and induced them to come and reconnoitre, in their turn, what was going on. They soon arrived; and, having broke through the circle formed by the first, approached the queen, touched her with the antennæ, and gave her honey. After this little ceremony they retired; and, placing themselves behind the others, enlarged the circle. There they vibrated their wings, and buzzed without tumult or disorder, and as if experiencing some very agreeable sensation. The queen had not yet moved from the place where I had put her, but in a quarter of an hour she began to move. The bees, far from opposing her, opened the circle at that part to which she turned, followed her, and formed a guard around. She was oppressed with the necessity of laying, and dropped eggs. Finally, after four hours abode, she began to deposit male eggs in the cells she met.
While these events passed on the surface of the comb where the queen stood, all was quiet on the other side. Here the workers were apparently ignorant of a queen's arrival in the hive. They laboured with great
## activity at the royal cells, as if ignorant that they no longer stood in
need of them: they watched over the royal worms, supplied them with jelly and the like. But the queen having at length come to this side, she was received with the same respect that she had experienced from their companions on the other side of the comb. They encompassed her; gave her honey; and touched her with their antennæ: and what proved better that they treated her as a mother, was their immediately desisting from work at the royal cells; they removed the worms, and devoured the food collected around them. From this moment the queen was recognised by all her people, and conducted herself in this new habitation as if it had been her native hive.
These particulars will give a just idea of the manner that bees receive a stranger queen; when they have time to forget their own, she is treated exactly as if she was their natural one, except that there is perhaps at first greater interest testified in her, or more conspicuous demonstrations of it. I am sensible of the impropriety of these expressions, but M. de Reaumur in some respect authorises them. He does not scruple to say, that bees pay _attention_, _homage_, and _respect_, to their queen, and from his example the like expressions have escaped most authors that treat on bees.
Twenty-four or thirty hours absence is sufficient to make them forget their first queen, but I can hazard no conjecture on the cause.
* * * * *
Before terminating this letter, which is full of combats and disastrous scenes, I should, perhaps, give you an account of some more pleasing and interesting facts relative to their industry. However, to avoid returning to duels and massacres, I shall here subjoin my observations on the massacre of the males.
You will remember, Sir, it is agreed by all observers, that at a certain period of the year, the workers kill and expel the drones. M. de Reaumur speaks of these executions as a horrible massacre. He does not expressly affirm, indeed, that he has himself witnessed it, but what we have seen corresponds so well with his account, that there can be no doubt he has beheld the peculiarities of the massacre.
It is usually in the months of July and August, that the bees free themselves of the males. Then they are drove away and pursued to the inmost parts of the hive, where they collect in numbers; and as at the same time we find many dead drones on the ground before the hives, it is indubitable that after being expelled, the bees sting them to death. Yet on the surface of the comb, we do not see the sting used against them; there the bees are content to pursue and drive them away. You observe this, Sir, yourself, in the new notes added to _la Contemplation de la Nature_; and you seem disposed to think, that the drones forced to retire to the extremity of the hive, perish from hunger. Your conjecture was extremely probable. Still it was possible the carnage might take place in the bottom of the hive, and had been unobserved, because that
## part is dark, and escapes the observer's eye.
To appreciate the justice of this suspicion, we thought of making the support of the hive of glass, and of placing ourselves below to see what passed in the scene of action. Therefore, a glass table was constructed, on which were put six hives with swarms of the same year; and, lying under it, we endeavoured to discover how the drones were destroyed. The invention succeeded to admiration. On the 4 of July, we saw the workers actually massacre the males, in the whole six swarms, at the same hour, and with the same peculiarities.
The glass table was covered with bees full of animation, which flew upon the drones, as they came from the bottom of the hive; seized them by the antennæ, the limbs, and the wings, and after having dragged them about, or, so to speak, after quartering them, they killed them by repeated stings directed between the rings of the belly. The moment that this formidable weapon reached them, was the last of their existence; they stretched their wings, and expired. At the same time, as if the workers did not consider them as dead as they appeared to us, they still stuck the sting so deep, that it could hardly be withdrawn, and these bees were obliged to turn upon themselves before the stings could be disengaged.
Next day, having resumed our former position, we witnessed new scenes of carnage. During three hours, the bees furiously destroyed the males. They had massacred all their own on the preceding evening, but now attacked those which, driven from the neighbouring hives, had taken refuge amongst them. We saw them also tear some remaining nymphs from the combs; they greedily sucked all the fluid from the abdomen, and then carried them away. The following days no drones remained in the hives.
These two observations seem to me decisive. It is incontestible that nature has charged the workers with the destruction of the males at certain seasons of the year. But what means does she use to excite their fury against them? This is a question that I cannot pretend to answer. However, an observation I have made may one day lead to solution of the problem. The males are never destroyed in hives deprived of queens, on the contrary, while a savage massacre prevails in other places, they there find an asylum. They are tolerated and fed, and many are seen even in the middle of January. They are also preserved in hives, which, without a queen properly so called, have some individuals of that species that lay the eggs of males, and in those whose half fecundated queens, if I may use the expression, propagate only drones. Therefore, the massacre takes place but in hives where the queens are completely fertile, and it never begins until the season of swarming is past.
_PREGNY, 28 August 1791._
LETTER VII.
_SEQUEL OF EXPERIMENTS ON THE RECEPTION OF A STRANGER QUEEN. M. DE REAUMUR'S OBSERVATIONS ON THE SUBJECT._
I have frequently testified my admiration of M. de Reaumur's observations on bees. I feel a sensible pleasure in acknowledging that if I have made any progress in the art of observation, I am indebted for it to profound study of the works of this naturalist. In general his authority has such weight, that I can scarcely trust my own experiments when the results are different from his. Likewise, on finding myself in opposition to the _historian of bees_, I repeat my experiments. I vary the mode of conducting them; I examine with the utmost caution all the circumstances that might mislead me, and never are my labours interrupted before acquiring the moral certainty of avoiding error. With the aid of these precautions, I have discovered the justice of M. de Reaumur's suggestions, and I have a thousand times seen, if certain experiments seemed to combat them, it was from incorrectness of execution. Yet I must except some facts where my results have constantly been different from his. Those respecting the reception of a stranger queen substituted for the natural one, are of the number.
If, after removing the natural queen, a stranger is immediately substituted, the usurper is ill received. I never could succeed in making them adopt her, but by allowing an interval of twenty or twenty-four hours to elapse. Then they seemed to have forgot their own queen; and respectfully received any female put in her place. M. de Reaumur, on the contrary, asserts, that should the original queen be removed, and another presented, this new one will be perfectly well received from the beginning. As evidence of this assertion, he gives the detail of an experiment which must be read in his work, for I shall here give only an extract of it{L}. He induced four or five hundred bees to leave their native hive and enter a glass box, containing a small piece of comb towards the top. At first they were in great agitation; and, to pacify or console them, he presented a new queen. From this moment, the tumult ceased, and the stranger queen was received with all respect.
I do not dispute the truth of this experiment; but, in my opinion, it does not warrant the conclusion that M. de Reaumur deduces from it. His apparatus removed the bees too much from their natural condition, to allow him to judge of their instinct and dispositions. In other situations, he has himself observed, that these animals, reduced to small numbers, lost their industry and activity, and feebly continued their ordinary labours. Thus their instinct is affected by every operation that too much diminishes their number. To render such an experiment truly conclusive, it must be made in a populous hive; and on removing the native queen, a stranger must immediately be substituted in her place. Had this been done, I am fully persuaded, that M. de Reaumur would have seen the bees imprison the usurper, confine her at least twelve or fifteen hours among them, and frequently suffocate her: nor would he have witnessed any favourable reception before an interval of twenty-four hours after removal of the original queen. No variation has occurred in my experiments regarding this fact. Their number, and the attention bestowed on them, make me presume they merit your confidence.
M. de Reaumur, in another passage of the same Memoir, affirms, that _bees, which have a queen they are satisfied with, are nevertheless disposed to give the best possible reception to any female that seeks refuge among them_. In the preceding letter, I have related my experiments on this head: their success has been very different from that of M. de Reaumur's. I have proved that the workers never employ their stings against the queen; but this cannot be called the welcome reception of a stranger. They retain her within their ranks, and seem to allow her liberty only when she prepares to combat the reigning queen. This observation cannot be made except in the thinnest hives. Those used by M. de Reaumur had always two parallel combs at least, which must have prevented him from observing some very important circumstances that influence the conduct of workers when supplied with several females. The first circles formed around a stranger queen he has taken for caresses; and, from the little that this queen could advance between the combs, it must have been impossible for him to observe that the circles, which always continued contracting, ended in restraint of the females there inclosed. Had he used thinner hives, he would have discovered that what he supposed indication of a favourable reception was the prelude of actual imprisonment.
I feel reluctant to assert that M. de Reaumur was deceived. Yet I cannot admit that, on certain occasions, bees tolerate a plurality of females in their hives. The experiment on which this affirmation rests will not be considered decisive. In the month of December, he introduced a stranger queen into a glass hive, in his cabinet, and confined her there. The bees had no opportunity of going out. This stranger was well received; her presence awakened the workers from their lethargic state, into which they did not relapse; she excited no carnage; the number of dead bees on the board of the hive did not sensibly increase; and no dead queens were found.
Before concluding any thing favourable to the plurality of queens, it was necessary to ascertain whether the native queen was living when the new one was introduced into the hive: however the author neglected this; and it is very probable the hive had lost its queen, since the bees were languid, and the presence of a stranger restored their activity.
I trust, Sir, that you will pardon this slight criticism. Far from industriously seeking faults in our celebrated Reaumur, I derive the greatest pleasure when my observations coincide with his, and still more, when my experiments justify his conjectures. But I think it proper to point out those cases where the imperfections of his hives have led him into error, and to explain from what causes I have not seen certain facts in the same manner he did. I feel particular anxiety to merit your confidence, and I am aware that the greatest exertions are necessary, when I have to combat the historian of bees. I confide in your judgment; and pray you to be assured of my respect.
_PREGNY, 30. August 1791._
FOOTNOTES:
{L} Edit. 4to, Tom. V. p. 258.
LETTER VIII.
_IS THE QUEEN OVIPAROUS? WHAT INFLUENCE HAS THE SIZE OF THE CELLS, WHERE THE EGGS ARE DEPOSITED, ON THE BEES PRODUCED?--RESEARCHES ON THE MODE OF SPINNING THE COCCOONS._
In this letter I shall collect some isolated observations relative to various points in the history of bees, concerning which you wished me to engage.
You desired me to investigate whether the queen is really _oviparous_. M. de Reaumur leaves this question undecided. He observes, that he has never seen the worm hatched; and he only asserts that worms are found in those cells where eggs have been deposited three days preceding. If we attempt to catch the moment when the worm leaves the egg, we must extend our observations beyond the interior of the hive; for there the continual motion of the bees obscures what passes at the bottom of cells. The egg must be taken out, presented to the microscope, and every change attentively watched. One other precaution is essential. As a certain degree of heat is requisite to hatch the worms, should the eggs be too soon deprived of it they wither and perish. The sole method of succeeding in seeing the worm come out, consists in watching the queen while she lays, in marking the egg so as to be recognised, and removing it from the hive to the microscope only an hour or two before the three days elapse. The worm will certainly be hatched, provided it has been exposed as long as possible to the full degree of heat. Such is the course I have pursued; and the following are the results obtained.
In the month of August, we removed several cells containing eggs that had been three days deposited: we cut off the top of the cell, and put the pyramidal bottom, where the egg was fixed, on a glass slider. Slight motions were soon perceptible in the eggs. At first, we could observe no external organization: the worm was entirely concealed from us by its pellicle. We then prepared to examine the egg with a powerful magnifier; however, during the interval, the worm burst its surrounding membrane, and cast off part of the envelope, which was torn and ragged on different parts of the body, and more evidently so towards the last rings. The worm alternately curved and stretched itself, with very lively action. Twenty minutes were occupied in casting off the spoil; when this exertion ceased: the worm lay down, curved, and seemed to take that rest which it required. An egg laid in a worker's cell produced this animal, which would have become a worker itself.
We next directed our attention to the moment when a male worm would be hatched. An egg was exposed to the sun on a glass slider; and, with a good magnifier, nine rings of the worm were perceptible within the transparent pellicle. This membrane was still entire, and the worm perfectly motionless. The two longitudinal lines of tracheæ were visible on the surface, and many ramifications. We never lost sight of the egg a single instant, and now succeeded in observing the first motions of the worm. The thick end alternately straightened and curved, and almost reached the part where the sharp extremity was fixed. These exertions burst the membrane, first on the upper part, towards the head, then on the back, and afterwards on all the rest successively. The ragged pellicle remained in folds on different parts of the body, and then fell off. Thus it is beyond dispute, that the queen is oviparous.
Some observers affirm, that the workers attend to the eggs before the worms are hatched; and it is certain that, at whatever time a hive is examined, we always see some workers with the head and thorax inserted into cells containing eggs, and remaining motionless several minutes in this position. It is impossible to discover what they do, for the interior of the cell is concealed by their bodies; but it is very easily ascertained that, in this attitude, they are doing nothing to the eggs.
If, at the moment the queen lays, her eggs are put into a grated box, and deposited in a strange hive, where there is the necessary degree of heat, the worms come out at the usual time, just as if they had been left in the cells. Thus no extraordinary aid or attention is required for their exclusion.
When the workers penetrate the cells, and remain fifteen or twenty minutes motionless, I have reason to believe, it is only to repose from their labours. My observations on the subject seem correct. You know, Sir, that a kind of irregular shaped cells, are frequently constructed on the panes of the hive. These, being glass on one side, are exceedingly convenient to the observer, since all that passes within is exposed. I have often seen bees enter these cells when nothing could attract them. The cells contained neither eggs nor honey, nor did they need further completion. Therefore the workers repaired thither only to enjoy some moments of repose. Indeed, they were fifteen or twenty minutes so perfectly motionless, that had not the dilatation of the rings shewed their respiration, we might have concluded them dead. The queen also sometimes penetrates the large cells of the males, and continues very long motionless in them. Her position prevents the bees from paying their full homage to her, yet even then the workers do not fail to form a circle around her, and brush the part of her belly that remains exposed.
The drones do not enter the cells while reposing, but cluster together on the combs; and sometimes retain this position eighteen or twenty hours without the slightest motion.
As it is important, in many experiments, to know the exact time that the three species of bees exist before assuming their ultimate form, I shall here subjoin my own observations on the point.
The worm of workers passes three days in the egg, five in the vermicular state, and then the bees close up its cell with a wax covering. The worm now begins spinning its coccoon, in which operation thirty-six hours are consumed. In three days, it changes to a nymph, and passes six days in this form. It is only on the twentieth day of its existence, counting from the moment the egg is laid, that it attains the fly state.
The royal worm also passes three days in the egg, and is five a worm; the bees then close its cell; and it immediately begins spinning the coccoon, which occupies twenty-four hours. The tenth and eleventh day it remains in complete repose, and even sixteen hours of the twelfth. Then the transformation to a nymph takes place, in which state four days and a third are passed. Thus it is not before the sixteenth day that the perfect state of queen is attained.
The male worm passes three days in the egg, six and a half as a worm, and metamorphoses into a fly on the twenty-fourth day after the egg is laid.
Though the larvæ of bees are apodal, they are not condemned to absolute immobility in their cells; for they can move by a spiral motion. During the first three days, this motion is so slow as scarcely to be perceptible, but it afterwards becomes more evident. I have then observed them perform two complete revolutions in an hour and three quarters. When the period of transformation arrives, they are only two lines from the orifice of the cells. As their position is constantly the same, bent in an arc, those in the workers' and drones' cells are perpendicular to the horizon, while those in the royal cells lie horizontally. It might be thought, that the difference of position has much influence on the increment of the different larvæ; yet it has none. By reversing combs containing common cells full of brood, I have put the worms in a horizontal position; but they were not injured. I have also turned the royal cells, so that the worms came into a horizontal direction; however their increment was neither slower nor less perfect.
* * * * *
I have been much surprised at the mode of bees spinning their coccoons, and I have witnessed many new and interesting facts. The worms both of workers and males fabricate _complete_ coccoons in their cells; that is, close at both ends, and surrounding the whole body. The royal larvæ, on the other hand, spin imperfect coccoons, open behind, and enveloping only the head, thorax, and first ring of the abdomen. The discovery of this difference, which at first may seem trifling, has given me extreme pleasure, for it evidently demonstrates the admirable art with which nature connects the various characteristics in the industry of bees.
You will remember, Sir, the evidence I gave you of the mutual aversion of queens, of the combats in which they engage, and the animosity that leads them to destroy one another. Of several royal nymphs in a hive, the first transformed attacks the rest, and stings them to death. But were these nymphs enveloped in a complete coccoon, she could not accomplish it. Why? because the silk is of so close a texture, the sting could not penetrate, or if it did, the barbs would be retained by the meshes of the coccoon, and the queen, unable to retract it, would become the victim of her own fury. Thus, that the queen might destroy her rivals, it was necessary the last rings of the body should remain uncovered, therefore the royal nymphs must only form imperfect coccoons. You will observe, that the last rings alone should be exposed, for the sting can penetrate no other part: the head and thorax are protected by connected shelly plates which it cannot pierce.
Hitherto, philosophers have claimed our admiration of nature in her care of preserving and multiplying the species. But from the facts I relate, we must admire her precautions in exposing certain individuals to a mortal danger.
The detail on which I have just entered clearly indicates the final cause of the opening left by the royal worms in their coccoons; but it does not shew whether it is in consequence of a particular instinct that they leave this opening, or whether the wideness of their cells prevents them from stretching the thread up to the top. This question interested me very much; the only method of deciding it was to observe the worms while spinning, which cannot be done in their opaque cells. It then occurred to me to dislodge them from their own habitations, and introduce them into glass tubes, blown in exact imitation of the different kind of cells. The most difficult part of the operation consisted in extracting worms and introducing them here; but my assistant accomplished it with much address. He opened several sealed royal cells, where we knew the larvæ were about to begin their coccoons, and, taking them gently out, introduced one into each of my glass cells without the smallest injury.
They soon prepared to work; and commenced by stretching the anterior part of the body in a straight line, while the other was bent in a curve. This formed a curve of which the longitudinal sides of the cells were tangents, and afforded two points of support. The head was next conducted to the different parts of the cell which it could reach, and it carpeted the surface with a thick bed of silk. We remarked that the threads were not carried from one side to another, and that this would have been impracticable, for the worms being obliged to support themselves, and to keep the posterior rings curved, the free and moveable part of the body was not long enough for the mouth to reach the sides diametrically opposite, and fix the threads to them. You will remember, Sir, that the royal cells are of a pyramidal form, with a wide base, and a long contracted top. These cells hang perpendicularly in the hive, the point downwards, from which position the royal worm can be supported in the cell, only when the curvature of the posterior part forms two points of support; and that it cannot obtain this support without resting on the lower part, or towards the extremity. Therefore if it attempted to stretch out and spin towards the wide end of the cell, it could not reach both sides from being too distant. One part would be touched by its extremity, the other by its back, and it would consequently tumble down. I have particularly ascertained the fact in glass cells that were too large, and of which the diameter was greater towards the point than is usual in cells; there they were unable to support themselves.
These first experiments obviated the suspicion of any particular instinct in the royal worms. They proved, if the worms spun incomplete coccoons, it was because they were forced to do so by the figure of their cells. However, I wished to have evidence still more direct. I put them into cylindrical glass cells, or portions of glass tubes resembling common cells, and I had the satisfaction of seeing them spin complete coccoons, as the worms of workers do. Lastly, I put common worms in very wide cells, and they left the coccoon open. Thus it is demonstrated, that the royal worms, and those of workers, have the same instinct and the same industry, or in other words, when situated in the same circumstances, the course they follow is the same. I may here add, that the royal worms artificially lodged in cells, where they can spin complete coccoons, undergo all their metamorphoses equally well. Thus the necessity imposed on them by nature, of having the coccoons open, is not necessary for their increment; nor has it any other object than that of exposing them to the certainty of perishing by the wounds of their natural enemy; an observation new and truly singular.
* * * * *
I ought to relate my experiments on the influence that the size of the cells has on bees. It is to you, Sir, that I am indebted for suggesting them.
As we sometimes find males smaller than they ought to be, and also queens more diminutive than usual, it was desirable to obtain a general explanation, to what degree the cells, where bees pass the first period of their existence, influence their size. With this view, you have advised me to remove all the combs composed of common cells, and to leave those consisting of large cells only. It was evident if the common eggs which the queen would lay in these large cells produced workers of larger size, we were bound to conclude that the size of the cells had a sensible influence on the size of the bees. The first time I made this experiment, it did not succeed, because weevils lodged in the hive discouraged the bees. But I repeated it afterwards, and the result was very remarkable.
I removed the whole comb, consisting of common cells, from one of my best glass hives, and left that composed of males' cells alone: and to avoid vacuities, I supplied others of the same kind. This was in June, the season most favourable to bees. I expected that the bees would quickly have repaired the ravages produced by this operation in their dwelling; that they would labour at the breaches, and unite the new combs to the old. But I was very much surprised to see that they did not begin to work. Expecting they would resume their activity, I continued observing them several days; however, my hopes were disappointed. Their homage to the queen was not interrupted indeed; but except in this, their conduct to the queen was quite different from what it usually is; they clustered on the combs without exciting any sensible heat. A thermometer among them rose only to 81°, though standing at 77° in the open air. In a word, they appeared in a state of the greatest despondency.
The queen herself, though very fertile, and though she must have been oppressed by her eggs, hesitated long before depositing them in the large cells; she chose rather to drop them at random than lay in cells unsuitable. However, on the second day, we found six that had been deposited there with all regularity. The worms were hatched three days afterwards, and then we began to study their history. Though the bees provided them with food, they did not carefully attend to it; yet I was in hopes they might be reared. I was again disappointed; for next morning all the worms had disappeared, and their cells were left empty. Profound silence reigned in the hive; few bees left it, and these returned without pellets of wax on the limbs; all was cold and inanimate. To promote a little motion, I thought of supplying the hive with a comb, composed of large cells, full of male brood of all ages. The bees, which had twelve days obstinately refused working in wax, did not unite this comb to their own. However, their industry was awakened in a way that I had not anticipated. They removed all the brood from this comb, cleaned out the whole cells, and prepared them for receiving new eggs. I cannot determine whether they expected the queen to lay, but it is certain if they did so they were not deceived. From this moment, she no longer dropped her eggs; but laid such a number in the new comb, that we found five or six together in the same cell. I then removed all the combs composed of large cells to substitute small cells in their place, an operation which restored complete activity among the bees.
The peculiarities of this experiment seem worthy of attention. It proves that nature does not allow the queen the choice of the eggs she is to lay. It is ordained that, at a certain time of the year, she shall produce those of males, and at another time the eggs of workers, and this order cannot be inverted. We have seen that another fact led me to the same consequence; and as that was extremely important, I am delighted to have it confirmed by a new observation. Let me repeat, therefore, that the eggs are not indiscriminately mixed in the ovaries of the queen, but arranged so that, at a particular season, she can lay only a certain kind. Thus, it would be vain at that time of the year, when the queen should lay the eggs of workers, to attempt forcing her to lay male eggs, by filling the hives with large cells; for, by the experiment just described, we learn, that she will rather drop the workers eggs by chance than deposit them in an unsuitable place; and that she will not lay the eggs of males. I cannot yield to the pleasure of allowing this queen discernment or foresight, for I observe a kind of inconsistency in her conduct. If she refused to lay the eggs of workers in large cells, because nature has instructed her that their size is neither proportioned to the size nor necessities of common worms, would not she also have been instructed not to lay several eggs in one cell? It seems much easier to rear a worker's worm in a large cell, than to rear several of the same species in a small one. Therefore, the supposed discrimination of bees is not very conspicuous. Here the most prominent feature of industry appears in the common bees. When I supplied them with a comb of small cells, full of male brood, their activity was awakened; but instead of bestowing the necessary care on this brood, as they would have done in every other situation, they destroyed the whole nymphs and larvæ, and cleaned out their cells, that the queen, now oppressed with the necessity of laying, might suffer no delay in depositing her eggs. Could we allow them either reason or reflection, this would be an interesting proof of their affection for her.
The experiment, now detailed at length, not having fulfilled my object in determining the influence of the size of the cells on that of the worms, I invented another which proved more successful.
Having selected a comb of large cells, containing the eggs and worms of males, I removed all the worms from their farina, and my assistant substituted those of workers a day old in their place. Then he introduced this comb into a hive that had the queen. The bees did not abandon these substituted worms; they covered their cells with a top almost flat, a kind quite different from what is put on the cells of males; which proves, that they were well aware that these, though inhabiting large cells, were not males. This comb remained eight days in the hive, counting from the time the cells were sealed. I then removed it to examine the included nymphs, which proved those of workers in different stages of advancement; but, as to size and figure, they perfectly resembled what had grown in the smallest cells. I thence concluded, that the larvæ of workers do not acquire greater size in large than in small cells. Although this experiment was made only once, it seems decisive. Nature has appropriated cells of certain dimensions for the worms of workers while in their vermicular state; undoubtedly she has ordained that their organs should be fully expanded, and there is sufficient space for that purpose; therefore more would be useless. Their expansion ought to be no greater in the most spacious cells than in those appropriated for them. If some cells smaller than common ones are found in combs, and the eggs of workers are deposited there, the size of the bees will probably be less than that of common workers, because they have been cramped in the cells; but it does not thence ensue, that a larger cell will admit of them growing to a greater size.
The effect produced on the size of drones by the size of the cells their worms inhabit, may serve as a rule for what should happen to the larvæ of workers in the same circumstances. The large cells of males are sufficiently capacious for the perfect expansion of their organs. Thus, although reared in cells of still greater capacity, they will grow no larger than common drones. We have had evidence of this in those produced by queens whose fecundation has been retarded. You will remember, Sir, that they sometimes lay male eggs in the royal cells. Now, the males proceeding from them, and reared in cells much more spacious than nature has appropriated for them, are no larger than common males. Therefore it is certain, that whatever be the size of the cells where the worms acquire their increment, the bees will attain no greater size than is peculiar to their species. But if, in their primary form, they live in cells smaller than they should be, as their growth will be checked, they will not attain the usual size, of which there is proof in the following experiment. I had a comb consisting of the cell of large drones, and one with those of workers, which also served for the male worms. Of these, my assistant took a certain number from the smallest cells, and deposited them on a quantity of food purposely prepared in the large ones; and in return he introduced into the small cells the worms that had been hatched in the other, and then committed both to the care of the workers in a hive where the queen laid the eggs of males only. The bees were not affected by this change; they took equal care of the worms; and when the period of metamorphosis arrived, gave both kinds that convex covering usually put on those of the males. Eight days afterwards, we removed the combs, and found, as I had expected, nymphs of large males in the large cells, and those of small males in the small ones.
You suggested another experiment which I carefully made, but it met with an unforeseen obstacle. To appreciate the influence of the royal food on the expansion of the worms, you desired me to supply the worm of a worker in a common cell with it. Twice I have attempted this operation without success. Nor do I think it can ever succeed. If bees get the charge of worms, in whose cells the royal food is deposited, and if at the same time they have a queen, they soon remove the worms and greedily devour the food. When, on the contrary, they are deprived of a queen, they change the cells containing worms into cells of the largest kind. Then the worms will infallibly be converted to queens.
But there is another situation where we can judge of the influence of the royal food administered to worms in common cells. I have spoken at great length in my letter on the existence of fertile workers. You cannot forget, Sir, that the expansion of their sexual organs is owing to the reception of some particles of royal jelly, while in the vermicular form. For want of new observations, I must refer you to what is previously said on the subject.
_PREGNY, 4 September 1791._
LETTER IX.
_ON THE FORMATION OF SWARMS._
I can add but a few facts to the information M. de Reaumur has communicated relative to swarms.
A young queen, according to this celebrated naturalist, is always or almost always at the head of a swarm; but he does not assert the fact positively, and had some doubts on the subject. "Is it certain," says he "as we have hitherto supposed, in coincidence with all who have treated of bees, that the new colony is always conducted by a young mother? May not the old mother be disgusted with her habitation? or may she not be influenced by some particular circumstances to abandon all her possessions to the young female? I wish it had been in my power to solve this question otherwise than by mere probabilities, and that some misfortune had not befallen all the bees whose queen I had marked red on the thorax."
These expressions seem to indicate, that M. de Reaumur suspected that the old queens sometimes conducted the young swarms. By the following details, you will observe, that his suspicions are fully justified.
In the course of spring and summer, the same hive may throw several swarms. The old queen is always at the head of the first colony; the others are conducted by young queens. Such is the fact which I shall now prove; and the peculiarities attending it shall be related.
But previous to entering on this subject, I should repeat what has already been frequently observed, that the _leaf_ or flat hives are indispensible in studying the industry and instinct of bees. When they are left at liberty to conduct several rows of parallel combs, we can no longer observe what is continually passing between them, or they must be dislodged by water or smoke, for examining what has been constructed; a violent proceeding, which has a material influence on their instinct, and consequently exposes an observer to the risk of supposing simple accidents permanent laws.
I now proceed to experiments proving that an old queen always conducts the first swarm.
One of my glass hives consisted of three parallel combs, placed in squares that opened like the leaves of a book. It was well peopled and abundantly provided with honey, wax, and brood, of every age. On the fifth of May 1788, I removed the queen, and on the sixth, transferred all the bees into another hive, with a fertile queen at least a year old. They entered easily and without fighting, and were in general well received. The old inhabitants of the hive, which, since privation of their queen, had begun twelve royal cells, also gave the fertile queen a good reception; they presented her with honey, and formed regular circles around her. However, there was a little agitation in the evening, but confined to the surface of the comb where we had put the queen, and which she had not quitted. All was perfectly quiet on the other side of this comb.
In the morning of the seventh, the bees had destroyed the twelve royal cells, but, independent of that, order continued prevalent in the hive; the queen laid the eggs of males in the large cells, and those of workers in the small ones, respectively.
Towards the twelfth, we found the bees occupied in constructing twenty-two royal cells, of the same species described by M. de Reaumur, that is the bases not in the plane of the comb, but appended perpendicularly by pedicles or stalks of different length, like stalactites, on the edge of the passage made by the bees through their combs. They bore considerable resemblance to the cup of an acorn, and the longest were only about two lines and a half in depth from the bottom to the orifice.
On the thirteenth, the queen seemed already more slender than when introduced into the hive; however she still laid some eggs, both in common cells and those of males. We also surprised her this day laying in a royal cell: she first dislodged the worker there employed, by pushing it away with her head, and then supported herself by the adjoining cells while depositing the egg.
On the fifteenth, the queen was still more slender: the bees continued their attention to the royal cells, which were all unequally advanced; some to three or four lines in height, while others were already an inch long; which proved that the queen had not laid in the whole at the same time.
At the moment when least expected, the hive swarmed on the nineteenth; we were warned of it by the noise in the air; and hastened to collect and put the bees into a hive purposely prepared. Though we had overlooked the facts attending the departure of the swarm, the object of this experiment was fulfilled; for, on examination of all the bees, we were convinced they had been conducted by the old queen; by that we introduced on the sixth of the month, and which had been deprived of one of the antennæ. Observe, there was no other queen in this colony. In the hive she had left, we found seven royal cells close at the top, but open at the side, and quite empty. Eleven more were sealed; and some others newly begun; no queen remained in the hive.
The new swarm next became the object of our attention: we observed it during the rest of the year, during winter and the subsequent spring; and, in April, we had the satisfaction of seeing a new swarm depart with the same queen at its head that had conducted the former swarm in May the preceding year.
You will remark, Sir, that this experiment is positive. We put an old queen in a glass hive while laying the eggs of males. The bees received her well, and at that time began to construct royal cells; she laid in one of them before us; and in the last place led forth the swarm.
We have several times repeated the same experiment with equal success. Thus it appears incontestible, that the old queen always conducts the first swarm; but never quits the hive before depositing eggs in the royal cells, from which other queens will proceed after her departure. The bees prepare these cells only while the queen lays male eggs; and a remarkable fact attends it, that after this laying terminates, her belly being considerably diminished, she can easily fly, whereas, her belly is previously so heavy she can hardly drag it along. Therefore it is necessary she should lay in order to be in a condition for undertaking her journey, which may sometimes be very long.
But this single condition is not enough. It is also requisite that the bees be very numerous: they should even be superabundant, and a person might say they are aware of it: for, if the hive is thin, no royal cells are constructed when the male eggs are laid, which is solely at the period that the queen is able to conduct a colony. This fact was proved by the following experiment on a large scale.
On the third of May 1788, we divided eighteen hives into two portions; all the queens were about a year old. Thus each portion of the hives had but half the bees that were originally there. Eighteen halves wanted queens, but the other eighteen had very fertile ones. They soon began to lay the eggs of males; but, the bees being few, they did not construct royal cells, and none of the hives threw a swarm.--Therefore, if the hive containing the old queen is not very populous, she remains in it until the subsequent spring; and if the population is then sufficient, royal cells will be constructed: the queen will begin to lay male eggs, and, after depositing them, will issue forth at the head of a colony, before the young queens are produced.
Such is a very brief abstract of my observations on swarms conducted by old queens. You must excuse the long detail on which I am about to enter, concerning the history of the royal cells left by the queen in the hive. Every thing relative to this part of the history of bees has hitherto been very obscure. A long course of observations, protracted even during several years, was necessary to remove, in some degree, the veil that concealed these mysteries. I have been indemnified for the trouble, indeed, by the pleasure of seeing my experiments reciprocally confirmed; but, considering the assiduity required in these researches, they were truly very laborious.
Having established in 1788 and 1789, that queens a year old conducted the first swarm, and that they left worms or nymphs in the hive to transform into queens in their turn; I endeavoured, in 1790, to profit by the goodness of the spring, to study all that related to these young queens; and I shall now extract the chief experiments from my journal.
On the fourteenth of May, we introduced two portions of bees, from the straw hives, into a large glass hive very flat; and allowed them only one queen of the preceding year, and which had already commenced laying in its native hive. We introduced her on the fifteenth. She was very fertile. The bees received her well, and she soon began to lay in large and small cells alternately.
On the twentieth, we saw the formation of twelve royal cells, all on the edges of the communications, or passages through the combs, and shaped liked stalactites.
On the twenty-seventh, ten were much but unequally enlarged; but none so long as when the worms are hatched.
On the twenty-eighth, previous to which the queen had not ceased laying, her belly was very slender, and she began to exhibit signs of agitation. Her motion soon became more lively, yet she still continued examining the cells as when about to lay; sometimes introducing half her belly, but suddenly withdrawing it, without having laid. At other times she deposited an egg, which lay in an irregular position, on one side of the hexagon, and not fixed by an end to the bottom of the cell. The queen produced no distinct sound in her course, and we heard nothing different from the ordinary humming of bees. She passed over those in her way; sometimes when she stopped, the bees meeting her also stopped; and seemed to consider her. They advanced briskly, struck her with their antennæ, and mounted on her back. She then went on carrying some of the workers on her back. None gave her honey, but she voluntarily took it from the cells in her way. The bees no longer inclosed and formed regular circles around her. The first, aroused by her motions, followed her running in the same manner, and in their passage excited those still tranquil on the combs. The way the queen had traversed was evident after she left it, by the agitation created, which was never afterwards quelled: she had soon visited every part of the hive, and occasioned a general agitation; if some places still remained tranquil, the bees in agitation arrived, and communicated their motion. The queen no longer deposited her eggs in cells; she let them fall fortuitously: nor did the bees any longer watch over the young; they ran about in every different direction; even those returning from the fields, before the agitation came to its height, no sooner entered the hive than they participated in these tumultuous motions. They neglected to free themselves of the waxen pellets on their limbs, and ran blindly about. At last the whole rushed precipitately towards the outlets of the hive, and the queen along with them.
As it was of much consequence to see the formation of new swarms in this hive, and, for that reason, as I wished it to continue very populous, I removed the queen, at the moment she came out, that the bees might not fly too far, and that they might return. In fact, after losing their female, they did return to the hive. To increase the population still more, I added another swarm, which had come from a straw hive on the same morning, and removed its queen also.
All these facts were certain, and appeared susceptible of no error. Notwithstanding this, I was particularly earnest to learn whether old queens always followed the same course; which induced me, on the twenty-ninth, to replace, in the glass hive, the queen a year old, which had hitherto been the subject of my experiments, and had just began to lay the eggs of males. On the same day, we found one of the royal cells left by the preceding queen larger than the rest; and, from its length, supposed the included worm two days old: the egg had, therefore, been laid on the twenty-fourth by that queen, and the worm was hatched on the twenty-seventh. On the thirtieth, the queen laid a great deal in the large and small cells alternately. Now, and the two following days, the bees enlarged several royal cells, but unequally, which proved that they included larvæ of different ages. One was closed on the first of June, and on the second another. The bees also commenced some new ones. All was perfectly quiet at eleven in the morning; but, at mid-day, the queen, from the utmost tranquillity, became evidently agitated; and her agitation insensibly communicated to the workers in every part of their dwelling. In a few minutes they precipitately crowded to the entrances, and, along with the queen, left the hive. After they had settled on the branch of a neighbouring tree, I sought for the queen; thinking that, by removing her, the bees might return to the hive, which actually ensued. Their first care seemed to consist in seeking the female; they were still in great agitation, but gradually calmed; and in three hours complete tranquillity was restored.
They had resumed their usual occupations on the third: they attended to the young, worked within the open royal cells, and also watched on those that were shut. They made a waved work on them, not by applying wax cordons, but by removing wax from the surface. Towards the top this waved work is almost imperceptible; it becomes deeper above, and the workers excavate it still more from thence to the base of the pyramid. The cell, when once shut, also becomes thinner; and is so much so, immediately preceding the queen's metamorphosis from a nymph, that all its motions are perceptible through the thin covering of wax on which the waved work is founded. It is a very remarkable circumstance, that in making the cells thinner, from the moment they are closed, the bees know to regulate their labour so that it terminates only when the nymph is ready to undergo its last metamorphosis.
On the seventh day the coccoon is almost completely _unwaxed_, if I may use the expression, at the part next to the head and thorax of the queen. This operation facilitates her exit; for she has nothing to do but cut the silk that forms the coccoon. Most probably the object is, to promote evaporation of the superabundant fluids of the nymph. I have made some direct experiments to ascertain the fact, but they are yet unfinished. A third royal cell was closed by the bees on the same day, the third of June, twenty-four hours after closing the second. The like was done to other royal cells successively, during the subsequent days.
Every moment of the seventh, we expected the queen to leave the royal cell shut on the thirtieth of May. The seven days had elapsed. The waving of her cell was so deep, that what passed within was pretty perceptible; we could discern that the silk of the coccoon was cut circularly, a line and a half from the extremity; but the bees being unwilling that she should yet quit her cell, they had soldered the covering to it with some particles of wax. What seemed most singular was, that this female emitted a very distinct sound, or clacking from her prison. It was still more audible in the evening, and even consisted of several monotonous notes in rapid succession.
The same sound proceeded from the royal cell on the eighth. Several bees kept guard round each royal cell.
The first cell opened on the ninth. The young queen was lively, slender, and of a brown colour. Now, we understood why bees retain the female captive in their cells, after the period for transformation has elapsed; it is, that they may be able to fly the instant they are hatched. The new queen occupied all our attention. When she approached the other royal cells, the bees on guard pulled, bit her, and chased her away; they seemed to be greatly irritated against her, and she enjoyed tranquillity only when at a good distance from these cells. This procedure was frequently repeated through the day. She twice emitted the sound; in doing so she stood, her thorax against a comb, and the wings crossed on her back; they were in motion but without being unfolded or further opened. Whatever might be the cause of her assuming this attitude, the bees were affected by it; all hung down their heads, and remained motionless.
The hive presented the same appearances on the following day. Twenty-three royal cells yet remained, assiduously guarded by a great many bees. When the queen approached, all the guards became agitated, surrounded her on all sides, bit, and commonly drove her away; sometimes when in these circumstances, she emitted her sound, assuming the position just described, from that moment the bees became motionless.
The queen confined in the second cell had not yet left it, and was heard to hum several times. We accidentally discovered how the bees fed her. On attentive examination, a small aperture was perceptible in the end of the coccoon which she had cut to escape, and which her guards had again covered with wax, to confine her still longer. She thrust her trunk through the cleft; at first the bees did not observe it alternately thrust out and drawn in, but one at length perceiving it, came to apply its trunk to that of the captive queen, and then gave way to others that also approached her with honey. When satisfied she retracted her trunk, and the bees again closed up the opening with wax.
The queen this day between twelve and one became extremely agitated. The royal cells had multiplied very much; she could go no where without meeting them, and on approaching she was very roughly treated. Then she fled, but to obtain no better reception. At last, these things agitated the bees; they precipitately rushed through the outlets of the hive, and settled on a tree in the garden. It singularly happened that the queen was herself unable to follow or conduct the swarm. She had attempted to pass between two royal cells before they were abandoned by the bees guarding them, and she was so confined and maltreated as to be incapable of moving. We then removed her into a separate hive prepared for a
## particular experiment; the bees, which had clustered on a branch, soon
discovered their queen was not present, and returned of their own accord to the hive. Such is an account of the second colony of this hive.
We were extremely solicitous to ascertain what would become of the other royal cells. Four of the close ones had attained complete maturity, and the queens would have left them had not the bees prevented it. They were not open either previous to the agitation of the swarms, or at the moment of swarming.
None of the queens were at liberty on the eleventh. The second should have transformed on the eighth; thus she had been three days confined, a longer period than the first which formed the swarm. We could not discover what occasioned the difference in their captivity.
On the twelfth, the queen was at last liberated, as we found her in the hive. She had been treated exactly as her predecessor; the bees allowed her to rest in quiet, when distant from the royal cells, but tormented her cruelly when she approached them. We watched this queen a long time, but not aware that she would lead out a colony, we left the hive for a few hours. Returning at mid-day, we were greatly surprised to find it almost totally deserted. During our absence, it had thrown a prodigious swarm, which still clustered on the branch of a neighbouring tree. We also saw with astonishment the third cell open, and its top connected to it as by a hinge. In all probability the captive queen, profiting by the confusion that preceded the swarming, escaped. Thus, there was no doubt of both queens being in the swarm. We found it so; and removed them, that the bees might return to the hive, which they did very soon.
While we were occupied in this operation, the fourth captive queen left her prison, and the bees found her on returning. At first they were very much agitated, but calmed towards the evening, and resumed their wonted labours. They formed a strict guard around the royal cells, and took great care to remove the queen whenever she attempted to approach. Eighteen royal cells now remained to be guarded.
The fifth queen left her cell at ten at night; therefore two queens were now in the hive. They immediately began fighting, but came to disengage themselves from each other. However they fought several times during the night without any thing decisive. Next day, the thirteenth, we witnessed the death of one, which fell by the wounds of her enemy. This duel was quite similar to what is said of the combats of queens.
The victorious queen now presented a very singular spectacle. She approached a royal cell, and took this moment to utter the sound, and assume that posture, which strikes the bees motionless. For some minutes, we conceived, that taking advantage of the dread exhibited by the workers on guard, she would open it, and destroy the young female; also she prepared to mount the cell; but in doing so she ceased the sound, and quitted that attitude which paralyses the bees. The guardians of the cell instantly took courage; and, by means of tormenting and biting the queen, drove her away.
On the fourteenth, the sixth young queen appeared, and the hive threw a swarm, with all the concomitant disorder before described. The agitation was so considerable, that a sufficient number of bees did not remain to guard the royal cells, and several of the imprisoned queens were thus enabled to make their escape. Three were in the cluster formed by the swarm, and other three remained in the hive. We removed those that had led the colony, to force the bees to return. They entered the hive, resumed their post around the royal cells, and maltreated the queens when approaching.
A duel took place in the night of the fifteenth, in which one queen fell. We found her dead next morning before the hive; but three still remained, as one had been hatched during night. Next morning we saw a duel. Both combatants were extremely agitated, either with the desire of fighting, or the treatment of the bees, when they came near the royal cells. Their agitation quickly communicated to the rest of the bees, and at mid-day they departed impetuously with the two females. This was the fifth swarm that had left the hive between the thirtieth of May and fifteenth of June. On the sixteenth, a sixth swarm cast, which I shall give you no account of, as it shewed nothing new.
Unfortunately we lost this, which was a very strong swarm; the bees flew out of sight, and could never be found. The hive was now very thinly inhabited. Only the few bees that had not participated in the general agitation remained, and those that returned from the fields after the swarm had departed. The cells were, therefore, slenderly guarded; the queens escaped from them, and engaged in several combats, until the throne remained with the most successful.
Notwithstanding the victories of this queen, she was treated with great indifference from the sixteenth to the nineteenth, that is, the three days that she preserved her virginity. At length, having gone to seek the males, she returned with all the external signs of fecundation, and was henceforth received with every mark of respect; she laid her first eggs forty-six hours after fecundation.
Behold, Sir, a simple and faithful account of my observations on the formation of swarms. That the narrative might be the more connected, I have avoided interrupting it by the detail of several particular experiments which I made at the same time for elucidating various obscure points of their history. These shall be the subject of future letters. For, although I have said so much, I hope still to interest you.
_PREGNY, 6. September 1791._
_P. S._--In revising this letter, I find I have neglected taking notice of an objection that may embarrass my readers, and which ought to be answered.
After the first five swarms had thrown, I had always returned the bees to the hive: it is not surprising, therefore, that it was continually so sufficiently stocked that each colony was numerous. But things are otherwise in the natural state: the bees composing a swarm do not return to the hive; and it will undoubtedly be asked, What resource enables a common hive to swarm three or four times without being too much weakened?
I cannot lessen the difficulty. I have observed that the agitation, which precedes the swarming, is often so considerable, that most of the bees quit the hive, and in that case we cannot well comprehend how, in three or four days afterwards, it can be in a state to send out another colony equally strong.
But remark, in the first place, that the queen leaves a prodigious quantity of workers' brood, which soon transforms to bees; and in this way the population sometimes becomes almost as great after swarming as before it.
Thus the hive is perfectly capable of affording a second colony without being too much weakened. The third and fourth swarm weaken it more sensibly; but the inhabitants always remain in sufficient numbers to preserve the course of their labours uninterrupted; and the losses are soon repaired by the great fecundity of the queen, as she lays above an hundred eggs a day.
If, in some cases, the agitation of swarming is so great, that all the bees participate in it, and leave the hive, the desertion lasts but for a moment. The hive throws only during the finest part of the day, and it is then that the bees are ranging through the country. Those that are out, therefore, cannot share in the agitation; when returned to the hive, they quietly resume their labours; and their number is not small, for, when the weather is fine, at least a third of the bees are employed in the fields at once.
Even in the most embarrassing case, namely, where the whole bees desert the hive, it does not follow, that all those endeavouring to depart become members of the new colony. When this agitation or delirium seizes them, the whole rush forward and accumulate towards the entrance of the hive, and are heated in such a manner that they perspire copiously. Those near the bottom, and supporting the weight of all the rest, seem drenched in perspiration; their wings grow moist; they are incapable of flight; and even when able to escape, they advance no farther than the board of the hive, and soon return.
Those that have lately left their cells remain behind the swarm, still feeble, they could not support themselves in flight. Here then are also many recruits to people what we should have thought a deserted habitation.
LETTER X.
_THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED._
To preserve greater regularity in continuing the history of swarms, I think it proper to recapitulate in a few words the principal points of the preceding letter, and to expatiate on each, concerning the result of new experiments, respecting which I have still been silent.
In the first place. _If at the return of spring, we examine a hive well peopled, and governed by a fertile queen, we shall see her lay a prodigious number of male eggs in the course of May, and the workers will chuse that moment for constructing several royal cells of the kind described by M. de Reaumur._ Such is the result of several long continued observations, among which there has not been the slightest variation, and I cannot hesitate in announcing it as demonstrated. However, I should here add the necessary explanation. It is necessary that the queen, before commencing her _great_ laying of the eggs of males, be eleven months old; when young she lays only those of workers. A queen, hatched in spring, will perhaps lay fifty or sixty eggs of drones in whole, but before beginning her great laying of them, which should be two thousand in a month, she must have completed her eleventh month in age. In the course of our experiments, which more or less disturbed the natural state of things, it often happened that the queen did not attain this age until October, and immediately began laying male eggs. The workers, as if induced by some emanation from the eggs, also adopted this time for building the royal cells. No swarm resulted thence, it is true, because in autumn all the necessary circumstances are absolutely wanting, but it is not less evident, that there is a secret relation between the production of the eggs of males, and the construction of royal cells.
This laying commonly continues thirty days. The bees on the twentieth or twenty-first lay the foundation of several royal cells. Sometimes they build sixteen or twenty; we have even had twenty-seven. When the cells are three or four lines high, the queen lays those eggs from which her own species will come, but not the whole in one day. That the hive may throw several swarms, it is essential that the young females conducting them be not all produced at the same time. One may affirm, that the queen anticipates the fact, for she takes care to allow at least the interval of a day between every egg deposited in the cells. It is proved by the bees knowing to close the cells the moment the worms are ready to metamorphose to nymphs. Now, as they close all the royal cells at different periods, it is evident the included worms are not all of an equal age.
The queen's belly is very turgid before she begins laying the eggs of drones; but it sensibly decreases as she advances, and when terminated is very small. Thus she finds herself in a condition to undertake a journey which circumstances may prolong; thus this condition was necessary; and as every thing is harmonious in the laws of nature, the origin of the males corresponds with that of the females, which they are to fecundate.
Secondly. _When the larvæ hatched from the eggs laid by the queen, in the royal cells, are ready to transform to nymphs, this queen leaves the swarm conducting a swarm along with her; and the first swarm that proceeds from the hive is uniformly conducted by the old queen._{M} I think I can divine the reason of it.
That there may never be a plurality of females in a hive, nature has inspired queens with a natural horror against each other; they never meet without endeavouring to fight, and to accomplish their mutual destruction. Thus, the chance of combat is equal between them, and fortune will decide to which the empire shall pertain. But if one combatant is older than the rest, she is stronger, and the advantage will be with her. She will destroy her rivals successively as produced. Thus, if the old queen did not leave the hive, when the young ones undergo their last metamorphosis, it could produce no more swarms, and the species would perish. Therefore, to preserve the species, it is necessary that the old queen conduct the first swarm. But what is the secret means employed by nature to induce her departure? I am ignorant of it.
In this country it is very rare, though not without example, for the swarm, led forth by the old queen, in three weeks to produce a new colony, which is also conducted by the same old queen; and that may happen thus. Nature has not willed that the queen shall quit the first hive before her production of male eggs is finished. It is necessary for her to be freed of them, that she may become lighter. Besides, if her first occupation, on entering a new dwelling, was laying more male eggs, still she might perish either from age or accident before depositing those of workers. The bees in that case would have no means of replacing her, and the colony would go to ruin.
All these things have been with infinite wisdom foreseen. The first operation of the bees of a swarm is to construct the cells of workers. They labour at them with great ardour, and as the ovaries of the queen have been disposed with admirable foresight, the first eggs she has to lay in her new abode are those of workers. Commonly her laying continues ten or eleven days; and at this time portions of comb containing large cells are fabricated. It may be affirmed, that the bees know their queen will also lay the eggs of drones; she actually does begin to deposit some, though in much smaller number than at first; enough however to encourage the bees to construct royal cells. Now, if in these circumstances the weather is favourable, it is not impossible that a second colony may be formed, and that the queen may depart at the head of it within three weeks of conducting the first swarm. But I repeat, the fact is rare in our climate. Let me now return to the hives from which the queen has led the first colony.
Thirdly. _After the old queen has conducted the first swarm from the hive, the remaining bees take particular care of the royal cells, and prevent the young queens successively hatched from leaving them, unless at an interval of several days between each._
In the preceding letter, I have given you the detail and proof of this fact, and I shall here add some reflexions. During the period of swarming, the conduct or instinct of bees seems to receive a particular modification. At all other times, when they have lost their queen, they appropriate workers worms to replace her; they prolong and enlarge the cells of these worms; they supply them with aliment more abundantly, and of a more pungent taste; and by this alteration, the worms that would have changed to common bees are transformed to queens. We have seen twenty-seven cells of this kind constructed at once; but when finished the bees no longer endeavour to preserve the young females from the attacks of their enemies. One may perhaps leave her cell, and attack all the other royal cells successively, which she will tear open to destroy her rivals, without the workers taking any part in their defence. Should several queens be hatched at once, they will pursue each other, and fight until the throne remain with her that is victorious. Far from opposing such duels, the other bees rather seem to excite the combatants.
Things are quite reversed during the period of swarming. The royal cells then constructed are of a different figure from the former. They resemble stalactites, and in the beginning are like the cup of an acorn. The bees assiduously guard the cells when the young queens are ready for their last metamorphosis. At length the female hatched from the first egg laid by the old queen leaves her cell; the workers at first treat her with indifference. But she, immediately yielding to the instinct which urges her to destroy her rivals, seeks the cells where they are enclosed; yet no sooner does she approach than the bees bite, pull, and drive her away, so that she is forced to remove; but the royal cells being numerous, scarce can she find a place of rest. Incessantly harassed with the desire of attacking the other queens, and incessantly repelled, she becomes agitated, and hastily traverses the different groupes of workers, to which she communicates her agitation. At this moment numbers of bees rush towards the aperture of the hive, and, with the young queen at their head, depart to seek another habitation.
After the departure of the colony, the remaining workers set another queen at liberty, and treat her with equal indifference as the first. They drive her from the royal cells; being perpetually harrassed, she becomes agitated; departs, and carries a new swarm along with her. In a populous hive this scene is repeated three or four times during spring. As the number of bees is so much reduced, that they are no longer capable of preserving a strict watch over the royal cells, several females then leave their confinement at once; they seek each other, fight, and the queen at last victorious reigns peaceably over the republic.
The longest intervals we have observed between the departure of each natural swarm have been from seven to nine days. This is the time that usually elapses after the first colony is led out by the old queen, until the next swarm is conducted by the first young queen set at liberty. The interval between the second and third is still shorter; and the fourth sometimes departs the day after the third. In hives left to themselves, fifteen or eighteen days are usually sufficient for the throwing of the four swarms, if the weather continues favourable, as I shall explain.
A swarm is never seen except in a fine day, or, to speak more correctly, at a time of the day when the sun shines, and the air is calm. Sometimes we have observed all the precursors of swarming, disorder and agitation, but a cloud passed before the sun, and tranquillity was restored; the bees thought no more of swarming. An hour afterwards, the sun having again appeared, the tumult was renewed; it rapidly augmented; and the swarm departed.
Bees generally seem much alarmed at the prospect of bad weather. While ranging in the fields the passage of a cloud before the hive induces them precipitately to return. I am induced to think they are disquieted by the sudden diminution of light. For if the sky is uniformly obscured, and there is no alteration in clearness or in the clouds dispelling, they proceed to the fields for their ordinary collections, and the first drops of a soft rain does not make them return with much precipitation.
I am persuaded that the necessity of a fine day for swarming is one reason that has induced nature to admit of bees protracting the captivity of their young queens in the royal cells. I will not deny that they sometimes seem to use this right in an arbitrary manner. However the confinement of the queens is always longer when bad weather lasts several days together. Here the final object cannot be mistaken. If the young females were at liberty to leave their cradles during these bad days, there would be a plurality of queens in the hive, consequently combats; and victims would fall. Bad weather might continue so long, that all the queens might at once have undergone their last metamorphosis, or attained their liberty. One victorious over the whole would enjoy the throne, and the hive, which should naturally produce several swarms, could give only one. Thus the multiplication of the species would have been left to the chance of rain, or fine weather, instead of which it is rendered independent of either, by the wise dispositions of nature. By allowing only a single female to escape at once, the formation of swarms is secured. This explanation appears so simple, that it is superfluous to insist farther on it.
But I should mention another important circumstance resulting from the captivity of queens; which is, that they are in a condition to fly, when the bees have given them liberty, and by this means are capable of profiting by the first moment of sunshine to depart at the head of a colony.
You well know, Sir, that all drones and workers are not in a condition to fly for a day or two after leaving their cells. Then they are of a whitish colour, weak, and their organs infirm. At least, twenty-four or thirty hours must elapse before the acquisition of perfect strength, and the development of all their faculties. It would be the same with the females was not their confinement protracted after the period of transformation; but we see them appear, strong, full grown, brown, and in a better condition for flying than at any other period. I have elsewhere observed, that constraint is used to retain the queens in captivity. The bees solder the covering to the sides of the cell by a cordon of wax. As I have also explained how they are fed, it need not be repeated here.
It is likewise a very remarkable fact, that queens are set at liberty earlier or later according to their age. Immediately when the royal cells were sealed, we marked them all with numbers, and we chose this period because it indicated the age of the queens exactly. The oldest was first liberated, then the one immediately younger, and so on with the rest. None of the younger queens were set at liberty before the older ones.
I have a thousand times asked myself how the bees could so accurately distinguish the age of their captives. Undoubtedly I should do better to answer this question by a simple avowal of my ignorance. At the same time, I must be permitted to state a conjecture. You will admit, that I have not, as some authors, abused the right of giving myself up to hypothesis; may not the humming or sound emitted by the young queens in their cells, be one of the methods employed by nature to instruct the bees in the age of their queens? It is certain that the female, whose cell is first sealed, is also the first to emit this sound. That in the next emits it sooner than the rest, and so on with those immediately subsequent. As their captivity may continue six days, it is possible that the bees in this space of time may forget which has emitted it first; but it is also possible, that the queens diversify the sounds, encreasing the loudness as they become older, and that the bees can distinguish these variations. We have even ourselves been able to distinguish differences in the sound, either with relation to the succession of notes, or their intensity; and probably there are gradations still more imperceptible that escape our organs, but may be sensible to those of the workers.
What gives weight to this conjecture is, that the queens brought up by M. Schirach's method, are perfectly mute; neither do the workers form any guard around their cells, nor do they retain them in captivity a moment beyond the period of transformation, and, when they have undergone it, they are allowed to combat until one has become victorious over all the rest. Why? Because the object is only to replace the last queen. Now, provided that among the worms reared as queens, only one succeeds, the fate of the others is uninteresting to the bees, whereas, during the period of swarming, it is necessary to preserve a succession of queens, for conducting the different colonies; and to ensure the safety of the queens, it is necessary to avert the consequences of the mutual horror by which they are animated against each other. Behold the evident cause of all the precautions that bees, instructed by nature, take during the period of swarming; behold an explanation of the captivity of females; and that the duration of their captivity might be ascertained by the age of the young queens, it was requisite for them to have some method of communicating to the workers when they should be liberated. This method consists in the sound emitted, and the variation they are able to give it.
In spite of all my researches, I have never been able to discover the situation of the organ which produces the sound. But I have instituted a new course of experiments on the subject, which are still unfinished.
Another problem still remains for solution. Why are the queens reared, according to M. Schirach's method, mute, whilst those bred in the time of swarming have the faculty of emitting a certain sound? What is the physical cause of this difference? At first I thought it might be ascribed to the period of life, when the worms that are to become queens receive the royal food. While hives swarm, the royal worms receive the food adapted for queens, from the moment of leaving the egg; those on the contrary, destined for queens, according to M. Schirach's method, receive it only the second or third day of their existence. It appears to me that this circumstance may have an influence on the different parts of organisation, and particularly on the organ of voice. Experiment has not confirmed this conjecture. I constructed glass cells in perfect imitation of royal cells, that the metamorphosis of the worms into nymphs, and of the nymphs to queens, might be visible. These experiments are related in a preceding letter. Into one of these artificial cells we introduced the nymph of a worm, reared according to M. Schirach's method, twenty-four hours before it could naturally undergo its last metamorphosis; and we replaced the glass cell in the hive, that the nymph might have the necessary degree of heat. Next day, we had the satisfaction of seeing it divest itself of the spoil, and assume its ultimate figure. This queen was prevented from escaping from her prison; but we had contrived an aperture for her thrusting out her trunk, and that the bees might feed her. I expected that she would have been completely mute; but it was otherwise; for she emitted sounds similar to those already described, therefore my conjecture was erroneous.
I next conceived that the queen being restrained in her motions, and in her desire for liberty, was induced to emit certain sounds. All queens, in this new point of view, are equally capable of emitting the sound, but to induce them to it, they must be in a confined situation. In the natural state, the queens that come from workers are not a single instant in restraint; and, if they do not emit the sound, it is because nothing impels them to it. On the other hand, those produced at the time of swarming are induced to do so by the captivity in which they are kept. For my own part, I give little weight to this conjecture; and though I state it here, it is less with a view to claim merit than to put others on a plan of discovering something more probable.
I do not ascribe to myself the credit of having discovered the humming of the queen bee. Old authors speak of it. M. de Reaumur cites a Latin work published 1671, _Monarchia Femina_, by Charles Butler. He gives a very brief abstract of this naturalist's observations, who we easily see has exaggerated or rather disguised the truth, by mixing it with the most absurd fancies; but it is not the less evident that Butler has heard this peculiar humming of queens, and that he did not confound it with the confused humming sometimes heard in hives.
Fourthly. _The young queens conducting swarms from their native hive are still in a virgin state._ The day after, being settled in their new abode, they generally depart in quest of the males; and this is usually the fifth day of their existence as queens; for two or three pass in captivity, one in their native hive, and a fifth in their new dwelling. Those queens that come from the worm of a worker, also pass five days in the hive before going in quest of males. So long as in a state of virginity, both are treated with indifference by the bees; but after returning with the external marks of fecundation, they are received by their subjects with the most distinguished respect. However, forty-six hours elapse after fecundation before they begin to lay. The old queen, which leads the first swarm in spring, requires no farther commerce with the males, for preservation of her fecundity. A single copulation is sufficient to impregnate all the eggs she will lay for at least two years.
_PREGNY, 8. September 1791._
FOOTNOTES:
{M} Schirach seems to have been aware of this fact.--T.
LETTER XI.
_THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED._
I have collected my chief observations on swarms in the two preceding letters; those most frequently repeated, and of which the uniformity of result leads me to apprehend no error. I have deduced what seem the most direct consequences; and in all the theoretical part, I have sedulously avoided going beyond facts. What is yet to be mentioned is more hypothetical, but it engrosses several curious experiments.
It has been demonstrated, that the principal motive of the young females departing when hives swarm, is their insuperable antipathy to each other. I have repeatedly observed that they cannot gratify their aversion, because the workers with the utmost care prevent them from attacking the royal cells. This perpetual opposition at length creates a visible inquietude, and excites a degree of agitation that induces them to depart. All the young queens are successively treated alike in hives that are to swarm. But the conduct of the bees towards the old queen, destined to conduct the first swarm, is very different. Always accustomed to respect fertile queens, they do not forget what they owe to her; they allow her the most uncontrouled liberty. She is permitted to approach the royal cells; and if she even attempts to destroy them, no opposition is presented by the bees. Thus her inclinations are not obstructed, and we cannot ascribe her flight, as that of the young queens, to the opposition she suffers. Therefore, I candidly confess myself ignorant of the motives of her departure.
Yet, on more mature reflection, it does not appear to me that this fact affords so strong an objection against the general rule as I had at first conceived. It is certain at least, that the old queens, as well as the young ones, have the greatest aversion to the individuals of their own sex. This has been proved by the numerous royal cells destroyed. You will remember, Sir, that in my first observations on the departure of old queens, seven royal cells opened at one side were destroyed by the queen. If rain continues several days, the whole are destroyed; in this case, there is no swarm, which too often happens in our climate, where spring is generally rainy. Queens never attack cells containing an egg or a very young worm; but only when the worm is ready for transforming to a nymph, or when it has undergone its last metamorphosis.
The presence of royal cells with nymphs or worms near their change, also inspires old queens with the utmost horror or aversion; but here it would be necessary to explain why the queen does not always destroy them though it is in her power. On this point, I am limited to conjectures. Perhaps the great number of royal cells in a hive at once, and the labour of opening the whole, creates insuperable alarm in the old queen. She commences indeed with attacking her rivals; but, incapable of immediate success, her inquietude during this work becomes a terrible agitation. If the weather continues favourable, while she remains in this condition, she is naturally disposed to depart.
It may easily be understood, that the workers accustomed to respect their queen, whose presence is a real necessity to them, crowd after her; and the formation of the first swarm creates no difficulty in this respect. But you will undoubtedly ask, Sir, What motive can induce the workers to follow their queen from the hive, while they treat the young queens very ill, and, even in their most amicable moments, testify perfect indifference towards them. Probably it is to escape the heat to which the hive is then exposed. The extreme agitation of the females leads them to traverse the combs in all directions. They pass through groupes of bees, injure and derange them; they communicate a kind of delirium, and these tumultuous motions raise the temperature to an insupportable degree. We have frequently proved it by the thermometer. In a populous hive it commonly stands between 92° and 97°, in a fine day of spring; but during the tumult which precedes swarming, it rises above 104°. And this is heat intolerable to bees. When exposed to it, they rush impetuously towards the outlets of the hive and depart. In general they cannot endure the sudden augmentation of heat, and in that case quit their dwelling; neither do those returning from the fields enter when the temperature is extraordinary.
I am certain, from direct experiments, that the impetuous courses of the queen over the combs, actually throws the workers into agitation; and I was able to ascertain it in the following manner. I wished to avoid a complication of causes. It was particularly important to learn, whether the queen would impart her agitation but not at the time of swarming. Therefore I took two females still virgins, but capable of fecundation for above five days, and put one in a glass hive sufficiently populous; the other I put into a different hive of the same kind. Then I shut the hives in such a way that there was no possibility of their escape. The air had free circulation. I then prepared to observe the hives every moment that the fineness of the weather would invite both males and females to go abroad, for the purpose of fecundation. Next morning, the weather being gloomy, no male left the hive, and the bees were tranquil; but towards eleven of the following day, the sun shining bright, both queens began to run about seeking an exit from every part of their dwelling; and from their inability to find one, traversed the combs with the most evident symptoms of disquiet and agitation. The bees soon
## participated of the same disorder; they crowded towards that part of the
hive where the openings were placed; unable to escape they ascended with equal rapidity, and ran heedlessly over the cells until four in the afternoon. It is nearly about this time that the sun declining in the horizon recalls the males; queens requiring fecundation never remain later abroad. The two females became calmer, and tranquillity was in a short time restored. This was repeated several subsequent days with perfect similarity; and I am now convinced that there is nothing singular in the agitation of bees while swarming, but that they are always in a tumultuous state when the queen herself is in agitation.
I have but one fact more to mention. It has already been observed, that on losing the female, bees give the larvæ of simple workers the royal treatment, and, according to M. Schirach, in five or six days they repair the loss of their queen. In this case there are no swarms. All the females leave their cells almost at the same moment, and after a bloody combat the throne remains with the most fortunate.
I can very well comprehend that the object of nature is to replace the lost queen; but as bees are at liberty to choose either the eggs or worms of workers, during the first three days of existence; to supply her place, why do they give the royal treatment to worms, all of nearly an equal age, and which must undergo their last metamorphosis almost at the same time? Since they are enabled to retain the young females in their cells, why do they allow all the queens, reared according to Schirach's method, to escape at once. By prolonging their captivity more or less, they would fulfil two most important objects at once, in repairing the loss of their females and preserving a succession of queens to conduct several swarms.
At first it was my opinion, that this difference of conduct proceeded from the difference of circumstances in which they found themselves situated. They are induced to make all their dispositions relative to swarming only when in great numbers, and when they have a queen occupied with her principal laying of male eggs; whereas, having lost their female, the eggs of drones are no longer in the combs to influence their instinct. They are in a certain degree restless and discouraged.
Therefore, after removing the queen from a hive, I thought of rendering all the other circumstances as similar as possible to the situation of bees preparing to swarm. By introducing a great many workers, I encreased the population to excess, and supplied them with combs of male brood in every stage. Their first occupation was to construct royal cells after Schirach's method, and to rear common worms with royal food. They also began some stalactite cells, as if the presence of the male brood had inspired them to it; but this they discontinued, as there was no queen to deposit her eggs. Finally, I gave them several close royal cells, taken indifferently from hives preparing to swarm. However, all these precautions were fruitless; the bees were occupied only with replacing their lost queen; they neglected the royal cells entrusted to their care; the included queens came out at the ordinary time, without being detained prisoners a moment; they engaged in several combats, and there were no swarms.
Recurring to subtleties, we may perhaps suggest a cause for this apparent contradiction. But the more we admire the wise dispositions of the author of nature, in the laws he has prescribed to the industry of animals, the greater reserve is necessary in admitting any theory adverse to this beautiful system, and the more must we distrust that facility of imagination from which we think by embellishment to elucidate facts.
In general, Naturalists who have long observed animals, and those in
## particular who have chose insects for their favourite study, have too
readily ascribed to them our sentiments, our passions, and even our intentions and designs. Incited to admiration, and disgusted perhaps by the contempt with which insects are treated, they have conceived themselves obliged to justify the consumption of time bestowed on this pursuit, and they have painted different traits of the industry of these minute animals, with the colours inspired by an exalted imagination. Nor is even the celebrated Reaumur to be acquitted of such a charge. He frequently ascribes combined intentions to bees; love, anticipation, and other faculties of too elevated a kind. I think I can perceive that although he formed very just ideas of their operations, he would be well pleased that his reader should admit they were sensible of their own interests. He is a painter who by a happy interest flatters the original, whose features he depicts. On the other hand, Buffon unjustly considers bees as mere automatons. It was reserved for you, Sir, to establish the theory of animal industry on the most philosophical principles, and to demonstrate that those actions that have a moral appearance depend on an association of ideas _simply sensible_. It is not my object here to penetrate those depths, or to insist on the details.
But, on the whole, facts relative to the formation of swarms perhaps present more subjects of admiration than any other part of the history of bees. I think it proper to state, in a few words, the simplicity of the methods by which the wisdom of nature guides their instinct. It cannot allow them the slightest portion of understanding; it leaves them no precautions to be taken, no combination to be followed, no foresight to exercise, no knowledge to acquire. But having adapted their sensorium to the different operations with which they are charged, it is the impulse of pleasure which leads them on. She has therefore pre-ordained all that is relative to the succession of their different labours; and to each operation she has united an agreeable sensation. Thus, when bees construct cells, watch over their larvæ, and collect provisions, we must not seek for method, affection, or foresight. The only inducement must be sought for in some pleasing sensation attached to each of these operations. I address a philosopher; and as these are his own opinions applied to new facts, I believe my language will be easily understood. But I request my readers to peruse and to reflect on that part of your works which treats of the industry of animals. Let me add but another sentence. The inducement of pleasure is not the sole agent; there is another principle, the prodigious influence of which, at least with regard to bees, has hitherto been unknown, that is the sentiment of aversion which all females continually feel against each other, a sentiment whose existence is so fully demonstrated by my experiments, and which explains many important facts in the theory of swarms.
_PREGNY, 10. September 1791._
LETTER XII.
_ADDITIONAL OBSERVATIONS ON QUEENS THAT LAY ONLY THE EGGS OF DRONES, AND ON THOSE DEPRIVED OF THE ANTENNÆ._
In relating my first observations on queens that lay male eggs alone, I have proved that they lay them in cells of all dimensions indifferently, and even in royal cells. It is also proved that the same treatment is given to male worms hatched from eggs laid in the royal cells, as if they were actually to be transformed to queens; and I have added, that in this instance the instinct of the workers appeared defective. It is indeed most singular, that bees which know the worms of males so well when the eggs are laid in small cells, and never fail to give them a convex covering when about to transform to nymphs, should no longer recognise the same species of worms when the eggs are laid in royal cells, and treat them exactly as if they should change to queens. This irregularity depends on something I cannot comprehend.
In revising what is said on this subject, I observe still wanting an interesting experiment to complete the history of queens that lay only the eggs of drones. I had to investigate whether these females could themselves distinguish that the eggs they deposit in the royal cells would not produce queens. I have already observed that they do not endeavour to destroy these cells when close, and I thence concluded, that in general the presence of royal cells in their hive does not inspire them with the same aversion to females whose fecundation has been retarded; but to ascertain the fact more correctly, it was essential to examine how the presence of a cell containing a royal nymph would affect a queen that had never laid any other than the eggs of drones.
This experiment was easy; and I put it in practice on the fourth of September, in a hive some time deprived of its queen. The bees had not failed to construct several royal cells for replacing their females. I chose this opportunity for supplying them with a queen, whose fecundation had been retarded to the twenty-eighth day, and which laid none but the eggs of males. At the same time, I removed all the royal cells, except one that had been sealed five days. One remaining was enough to shew the impression it would make on the stranger queen introduced; had she endeavoured to destroy it; this, in my opinion, would have proved that she anticipated the origin of a dangerous rival. You must admit the use I make of the word anticipate; it saves a long paraphrase; I feel the impropriety of it. If, on the contrary, she did not attack the cell I would thence conclude that the delay of fecundation, which deprived her of the power of laying workers eggs, had also impaired her instinct. This was the fact; the queen passed several times over the royal cell, both the first and the subsequent day, without seeming to distinguish it from the rest. She quietly laid in the surrounding cells; notwithstanding the cares incessantly bestowed by the bees upon it, she never one moment appeared to suspect the danger with which the included royal nymph threatened her. Besides, the workers treated their new queen as well as they would have treated any other female. They were lavish of honey and respect, and formed those regular circles around her that seem an expression of homage.
Thus, independent of the derangement occasioned by retarded impregnation, in the sexual organs of queens, it certainly impairs their instinct. Aversion or jealousy is no longer preserved against their own sex in the nymphine state, nor do they longer endeavour to destroy them in their cradles.
My readers will be surprised that queens whose fecundation has been retarded, and whose fecundity is so useless to bees, should be so well treated and become as dear to them as females laying both kinds of eggs. But I remember to have observed a fact more astonishing still. I have seen workers bestow every attention on a queen though sterile; and after her death treat her dead body as they had treated herself when alive, and long prefer this inanimate body to the most fertile queens I had offered them. This sentiment, which assumes the appearance of so lively an affection, is probably the effect of some agreeable sensation communicated to bees by their queen, independent of fertility. Those laying only the eggs of males probably excite the same sensation in the workers.
I now recollect that the celebrated Swammerdam somewhere observes, that when a queen is blind, sterile, or mutilated, she ceases to lay, and the workers of her hive no longer labour or make any collections, as if aware that it was now useless to work. He cites no experiment that led him to the discovery. Those made by myself have afforded some very singular results.
I frequently amputated the four wings of queens; and not only did they continue laying, but the same confederation of them was testified by the workers as before. Therefore, Swammerdam has no foundation for asserting, that mutilated queens cease to lay. Indeed, from his ignorance of fecundation taking place without the hives, it is possible he cut the wings off virgin queens, and they, becoming incapable of flight, remained sterile from inability to seek the males in the air. Thus, amputation of the wings does not produce sterility in queens.
* * * * *
I have frequently cut off one antennæ to recognise a queen the more easily, and it was not prejudicial to her either in fecundity or instinct nor did it affect the attention paid to her by the bees. It is true, that as one still remained, the mutilation was imperfect; and the experiment decided nothing. But amputation of both antennæ produced most singular effects. On the fifth of September, I cut both off a queen that laid the eggs of males only, and put her into the hive immediately after the operation. From this moment there was a great alteration in her conduct. She traversed the combs with extraordinary vivacity. Scarcely had the workers time to separate and recede before her; she dropped her eggs, without attending to deposit them in any cell. The hive not being very populous, part was without comb. Hither she seemed particularly earnest to repair, and long remained motionless. She appeared to avoid the bees; however, several workers followed her into this solitude, and treated her with the most evident respect. She seldom required honey from them, but, when that occurred, directed her trunk with an uncertain kind of feeling, sometimes on the head and sometimes on the limbs of the workers, and if it did reach their mouths, it was by chance. At other times she returned upon the combs, then quitted them to traverse the glass sides of the hive: and always dropped eggs during her various motions. Sometimes she appeared tormented with the desire of leaving her habitation. She rushed towards the opening, and entered the glass tube adapted there; but the external orific being too small, after fruitless exertion, she returned. Notwithstanding these symptoms of delirium, the bees did not cease to render her the same attention as they ever pay to their queens, but this one received it with indifference. All that I describe appeared to me the consequence of amputating the antennæ. However, her organization having already suffered from retarded fecundation, and as I had observed her instinct in some degree impaired, both causes might possibly concur in producing the same effect. To distinguish properly what belonged to the privation of the antennæ, a repetition of the experiment was necessary, in a queen otherwise well organised, and capable of laying both kinds of eggs.
This I did on the sixth of September. I amputated both the antennæ of a female which had been several months the subject of observation, and being of great fecundity had already laid a considerable number of workers eggs, and those of males. I put her into the same hive where the queen of the preceding experiment still remained, and she exhibited precisely the same marks of delirium and agitation, which I think it needless to repeat. I shall only add, that to judge better of the effect produced by privation of the antennæ, on the industry and instinct of bees, I attentively considered the manner in which these two mutilated queens treated each other. You cannot have forgot, Sir, the animosity with which queens, possessing all their organs, combat, on which account it became extremely interesting to learn whether they would experience the same reciprocal aversion after losing their antennæ. We studied these queens a long time; they met several times in their courses, and without exhibiting the smallest resentment. This last instance is, in my opinion, the most complete evidence of a change operated in their instinct.
Another very remarkable circumstance, which this experiment gave me occasion to observe, consists in the good reception given by the bees to the stranger queen, while they still preserved the first. Having so often seen the symptoms of discontent that a plurality of queens occasions, after having witnessed the clusters formed around these supernumerary queens to confine them, I could not expect they would pay the same homage to a second mutilated one they still testified towards the first. Is it because after losing the antennæ, these queens have no more any characteristic which distinguishes the one from the other?
I was the more inclined to admit this conjecture from the bad reception of a third fertile queen preserving her antennæ, which was introduced into the same hive. The bees seized, bit her, and confined her so closely, that she could hardly breath or move. Therefore, if they treat two females deprived of antennæ in the same hive equally well, it is probably because they experience the same sensation from these two females, and want the means of longer distinguishing them from each other.
From all this, I conclude, that the antennæ are not a frivolous ornament to insects, but, according to all appearance, are the organs of touch or smell. Yet I cannot affirm which of these senses reside in them. It is not impossible that they are organised in such a manner as to fulfil both functions at once.
As in the course of this experiment both mutilated females constantly endeavoured to escape from the hive, I wished to see what they would do if set at liberty, and whether the bees would accompany them in their flight. Therefore I removed the first and third queen from the hive, leaving the fertile mutilated one, and enlarged the entrance.
The queen left her habitation the same day. At first she tried to fly, but, her belly being full of eggs, she fell down and never attempted it again. No workers accompanied her. Why, after rendering the queen so much attention while she lived among them, did they abandon her now on her departure? You know, Sir, that queens governing a weak swarm are sometimes discouraged, and fly away, carrying all their little colony along with them. In like manner sterile queens, and those whose dwelling is ravaged by weevils, depart; and are followed by all their bees. Why therefore in this experiment did the workers allow their mutilated queen to depart alone? All that I can hazard on this question is a conjecture. It appears that bees are induced to quit the hives from the increased heat which occasions the agitation of their queen, and the tumultuous motion which she communicates to them. A mutilated queen, notwithstanding her delirium, does not agitate the workers, because she seeks the uninhabited parts of the hive, and the glass panes of it: she hurries over clusters of bees, but the shock resembles that of any other body, and produces only a local and instantaneous motion. The agitation arising from it, is not communicated from one place to another, like that produced by a queen, which in the natural state wishes to abandon her hive and lead out a swarm; there is no increased heat, consequently nothing that renders the hive insupportable to her.
This conjecture, which affords a tolerable explanation why bees persist in remaining in the hive, though the mutilated queen has left it, is no reason for the motive inducing the queen herself to depart. Her instinct is altered; that is the whole that I can perceive. I can discern nothing more. It is very fortunate for the hive, that this queen departs, for the bees incessantly attend her; nor do they ever think of procuring another while she remains; and if she was long of leaving them, it would be impossible to replace her; for the workers worms would exceed the term at which they are convertible into royal worms, and the hive would perish. Observe, that the eggs dropped by the mutilated queen can never serve for replacing her, for, not being deposited in cells, they dry and produce nothing.
I have yet to say a few words on females laying male eggs only. M. Schirach supposes that one branch of their double ovary suffers some alteration. He seems to think that one of these branches contains the eggs of males, while the other has none but common eggs, and as he ascribes the inability of certain queens to lay the latter to some disease, his conjecture becomes very plausible. In fact, if the eggs of males and workers are indiscriminately mixed in both branches of the ovary, it appears at first sight that whatever cause acts on that organ, it should equally affect both species of eggs. If on the contrary, one branch is occupied by the eggs of drones only, and the other contains none but common eggs, we may conceive how disease affects the one, while the other remains untouched. Though this conjecture is probable, it is confuted by observation. We lately dissected queens, which laid none but male eggs, and found both branches of the ovary equally well expanded, and equally sound, if I may use the expression. The only difference that struck us was that in these two branches, the eggs were apparently not so close together as in the ovaries of queens laying both kinds of eggs.
_PREGNY, 12. September 1791._
LETTER XIII.
_ECONOMICAL CONSIDERATIONS ON BEES._
In this letter I shall treat of the advantages that may be derived from the new invented hives, called _book_ or _leaf_ hives, in promoting the _economical knowledge_ of bees.
It is needless to relate the different methods hitherto employed in forcing bees to yield up a portion of their honey and wax; all resemble each other in being cruel and ill understood.
It is evident, when bees are cultivated for the purpose of sharing the produce of their labours, we must endeavour to multiply them as much as the nature of the country admits; and consequently to regard their lives at the time we plunder them. Therefore it is an absurd custom to sacrifice whole hives to get at the riches they contain. The inhabitants of this country, who follow no other method, annually lose immense numbers of hives; and spring, being generally unfavourable to swarms, the loss is irreparable. I well know that at first they will not adopt any other method; they are too much attached to prejudices and old customs. But naturalists and intelligent cultivators of bees will be sensible of the utility of the method I propose; and if they apply it to use I hope their example will extend and perfect the culture of bees.
It is not more difficult to lodge a natural swarm in a leaf hive than in any other of a different shape. But there is one precaution essential to success, which I should not omit. Though the bees are indifferent as to the position of their combs, and as to their greater or lesser size, they are obliged to construct them perpendicular to the horizon, and parallel to each other. Therefore, if left entirely to themselves, when establishing a colony in one of those new hives, they would frequently construct several small combs parallel indeed, but perpendicular to the plane of the frames or leaves, and by this disposition prevent the advantages which I think to derive from the figure of my hives, since they could not be opened without breaking the combs. Thus they must previously have a guide to follow; the cultivator himself lays the foundation of their edifices, and that by a simple method. A portion of comb must be solidly fixed in some of the boxes composing the hive; the bees will extend it; and, in prosecution of their work, will accurately follow the plan already given them. Therefore on opening the hive, no obstacle is to be removed, nor stings to be dreaded, for one of the most singular and valuable properties attending this construction, is its rendering the bees tractable. I appeal to you, Sir, for the truth of what I say. In your presence I have opened all the divisions of the most populous hives, and the tranquillity of the bees has given you great surprise. I can desire no other evidence of my assertion. It is in the facility of opening these hives at pleasure that all the advantages lie, which I expect in perfecting the economical knowledge of bees.
I conceive, when I observe bees may be rendered tractable, that it need not be added, I do not arrogate to myself the absurd pretence of _taming_ them, for this excites a vague idea of tricks; and I would willingly avoid the hazard of exposing myself to any such reproach. I ascribe their tranquillity on opening the hives, to the manner that the sudden introduction of light affects them; then, they seem rather to testify fear than anger. Many retire and enter the cells, and appear to conceal themselves. What confirms my conjecture is, their being less tractable during night or after sunset than through the day. Thus, we must open the hives, while the sun is above the horizon, cautiously, and without any sudden shock. The divisions must be separated slowly, and care taken not to wound any of the bees. If they cluster too much on the combs, they must be brushed off with a feather; and breathing on them carefully avoided. The air we expire seems to excite their fury; it certainly has some irritating quality, for if bellows are used, they are rather disposed to escape than to sting.
Respecting the advantages of leaf hives, I shall observe, they are very convenient for forming _artificial_ swarms. In the history of natural swarms, I have shewn how many favourable circumstances are necessary for their success. From experience I know that they very often fail in our climate; and even when a hive is disposed to swarm, it frequently happens that the swarm is lost either because the moment of its departure has not been foreseen, because it rises out of sight, or settles on inaccessible places. Instructing the cultivators of bees how to make artificial swarms is a real service, and the form of my hives renders this an easy operation. But it requires farther illustration.
Since bees, according to M. Schirach's discovery, can procure another queen after having lost their own, provided there is workers brood in the combs not above three days old, it results that we can at pleasure produce queens, by removing the reigning one. Therefore, if a hive sufficiently populous is divided in two, one half will retain the old queen, and the other will not be long of obtaining a new one. But to ensure success, we must choose a propitious moment, which is never certain but in leaf hives. In these we can see whether the population is sufficient to admit of division, if the brood is of the proper age, if males exist or are ready to be produced for impregnating the young queens.
Supposing the union of all these conditions, the following is the method to be pursued. The leaf hive may be divided through the middle without any shock. Two empty divisions may be insinuated between the halves, which, when exactly applied to each other, are close on the outside. The queen must be sought in one of the halves, and marked to avoid mistake. If she by chance remains in the division with most brood, she is to be transferred to the other with less, that the bees may have every possible opportunity of obtaining another female. Next, it is necessary to connect the halves together, by a cord tied tight around them, and care must be taken that they are set on the same board that the hive previously occupied. The old entrance, now become useless, will be shut up; but as each half requires a new one, it ought to be made at the bottom of each division, on purpose that they may be as far asunder as possible. Both entrances should not be made on the same day. The bees in the half deprived of the queen ought to be confined twenty-four hours, and no opening made before then except for admission of air. Without this precaution, they would soon search for their queen, and infallibly find her in the other division. They will then retire in great numbers from their own division, until too few remain to perform the necessary labours. But this will not ensue if they are confined twenty-four hours, provided that interval is sufficient to make them forget the queen. When all these circumstances are favourable, the bees, in the division wanting the queen, will the same day begin to labour in procuring another, and ten or fifteen days after the operation, their loss will be repaired. The young female they have reared, soon issues forth to seek impregnation, and in two days commences the laying of workers eggs. Nothing more is wanting to the bees of this half hive, and the success of the artificial swarm is ensured.
It is to M. Schirach that we are indebted for this ingenious method of forming swarms. He supposes, by producing young queens early in spring, that early swarms might be procured, which would certainly be advantageous in favourable circumstances. But unfortunately this is impossible. Schirach believed that queens were impregnated of themselves, consequently he thought that after being artificially produced, they would lay and give birth to a numerous posterity. Now, this is an error; the females, to become fertile, require the concourse of the males, and if not impregnated within a few days of their origin, their laying, as I have observed, is completely deranged. Thus, if a swarm were artificially formed before the usual time of the males originating, the bees would be discouraged by the sterility of the young female. Or should they remain faithful to her, awaiting the period of fecundation, as she could not for three or four weeks receive the approaches of the male, she would lay eggs producing males only, and the hive in this case would perish. Thus the natural order must not be deranged, but we must delay the division of hives until males are about to originate or actually exist.
Besides, if M. Schirach did succeed in obtaining artificial swarms, notwithstanding the great inconvenience of his hives, it was owing to his singular address and unremitting assiduity. He had some pupils in the art; these communicated the method of forming artificial swarms to others, and there are people now in Saxony who traverse the country practising this operation. Those versant in the matter can alone venture to undertake it with common hives, whereas, every cultivator can do it himself with the leaf hives.
In this construction, another very great advantage will also be found. Bees can be forced to work in wax. Here I am led to what I believe is a new observation. While naturalists have directed our admiration to the parallel position of the combs, they have overlooked another trait in the industry of bees, namely, the equal distance uniformly between them. On measuring the interval separating the combs, it will generally be found four lines. Were they too distant, it is very evident the bees would be much dispersed and unable to communicate their heat reciprocally; whence the brood would not be exposed to sufficient warmth. Were the combs too close, on the contrary, the bees could not freely traverse the intervals, and the work of the hive would suffer. Therefore, a certain distance always uniform is requisite, which corresponds equally well with the service of the hive, and the care necessary for the worms. Nature, which has taught bees so much, has instructed them regularly to preserve this distance. At the approach of winter, they sometimes elongate the cells which are to contain the honey, and thus contract the intervals between the combs. But this operation is a preparation for a season, when it is important to have plentiful magazines, and when their activity being very much relaxed, it is unnecessary for their communications to be so spacious and free. On the return of spring, the bees hasten to contract these elongated cells, that they may become fit for receiving the eggs which the queen will lay, and thus re-establish the just distance which nature has ordained.
This being admitted, bees may be forced to work in wax, or, which is the same thing, to construct new combs. To accomplish the object, it is only necessary to separate those already built so far asunder that they may build others in the interval. Suppose an artificial swarm is lodged in a leaf hive, composed of six divisions, each containing a comb, if the young queen is as fertile as she ought to be, the bees will be very
## active in their labours, and disposed to make great collections of wax.
To induce them towards this an empty box or division must be placed between two others, each containing a comb. As all the boxes are of equal dimensions, and of the necessary width for receiving a comb, the bees having sufficient space for constructing a new one in the empty division introduced into the hive, will not fail to build it, because they are under the necessity of never having more than four lines between them. Without any guide, this new comb will be parallel to the old ones, to preserve that law which establishes an equal distance throughout the whole.
If the hive is strong and the weather good, three empty divisions may at first be left between the old combs; one between the first and second, another between the third and fourth, and the last between the fifth and sixth. The bees will fill them in seven or eight days, and the hive then contains nine combs. Should the temperature of the weather continue favourable, three new leaves or divisions may be introduced; consequently in fifteen days or three weeks, the bees will have been forced to construct six new combs. The experiment may be extended farther in warm climates, and where flowers perpetually blow. But in our country, I have reason to think that the labour should not be forced more during the first year.
From these details, you are sensible, Sir, how preferable _leaf hives_ are to those of any other construction, and even to those ingenious stages described by _M. Palteau_, for the bees cannot by means of them be forced to labour more in wax than they would do if left to themselves; whereas, they are obliged to do it by inserting empty divisions. Next, the combs constructed on those stages cannot be removed without destroying considerable portions of brood, deranging the bees, and creating real disorder in the hive.
Mine have also this advantage, that what passes within may daily be observed, and we may judge of the most favourable moments for depriving the bees of part of their stores. With all the combs before us we can distinguish those containing brood only, and what it is proper to preserve. The scarcity or abundance of provisions is visible, and the portion suitable may be taken away.
I should protract this letter too much, if I gave an account of all my observations on the time proper for inspecting hives, on the rules to be followed in the different seasons, and the proportion to be observed in dividing their riches with them. The subject would require a separate work; and I may perhaps one day engage in it; but until that arrives I shall always feel gratification in communicating to cultivators, who wish to follow my method, directions of which long practice has demonstrated the utility.
Here I shall only observe, that we hazard absolute ruin of the hives, by robbing them of too great a proportion of honey and wax. In my opinion, the art of cultivating these animals consists in moderately exercising the privilege of sharing their labours; but as a compensation for this, every method must be employed which promotes the multiplication of bees. Thus, for example, if we desire to procure a certain quantity of honey and wax annually, it will be better to seek it in a number of hives, managed with discretion, than to plunder a few of a great proportion of their treasures.
It is indubitable that the multiplication of these industrious animals is much injured by privation of several combs, in a season unfavourable to the collection of wax, because the time consumed in replacing them is taken from that which should be consecrated to the care of the eggs and worms, and by this means the brood suffers. Besides, they must always have a sufficient provision of honey left for winter, for although less is consumed during this season, they do consume some; because they are not torpid, as some authors have conceived.{N} Therefore if they have not enough, they must be supplied with it, which requires great exactness. I admit that in determining to what extent hives may be multiplied in a particular country, it is necessary first to know how many the country can support, which is a problem yet unsolved. It also depends on another, the solution of which is as little known, namely the greatest distance that bees fly in collecting their provender. Different authors maintain, they can fly several leagues from the hive. But by the few observations I have been able to make, this distance seems greatly exaggerated. It appears to me that the radius of the circle they traverse does not exceed half a league. As they return to the hive with the greatest precipitation whenever a cloud passes before the sun, it is probable they do not fly far. Nature which has inspired them with such terror for a storm, and even for rain, undoubtedly restrains them from going so far as to be too much exposed to the injuries of the weather. I have endeavoured to ascertain the fact more positively, by transporting to various distances bees with the thorax painted, that they might again be recognised. But none ever returned that I had carried for twenty-five or thirty minutes from their dwelling, while those at a shorter distance have found their way and returned. I do not state this experiment as decisive. Though bees do not generally fly above half a league, it is very possible they go much farther, when flowers are scarce in their own vicinity. A conclusive experiment must be made in vast arid or sandy plains, separated by a known distance from a fertile region.
Thus, the question yet remains undecided. But without ascertaining the number of hives that any district can maintain, I shall remark that certain vegetable productions are much more favourable to bees than others. More hives, for example, may be kept in a country abounding meadows, and where black grain is cultivated, than in a district of vineyards or corn.
* * * * *
Here I terminate my observations on bees. Though I have had the good fortune to make some interesting discoveries, I am far from considering my labour finished. Several problems concerning the history of these animals still remain unsolved. The experiments I project may perhaps throw some light on them; and I shall be animated with much greater hopes of success, if you, Sir, will continue your counsels and direction. I am, with every sentiment of gratitude and respect,
FRANCIS HUBER. _PREGNY, 1. October 1791._
FOOTNOTES:
{N} So far from being torpid in winter, when the thermometer in the open air is several degrees below freezing, it stands at (86) and (88°), in hives sufficiently populous. The bees then cluster together, and move to preserve their heat.
Now that I am on the subject of thermometrical observations, I may cursorily remark, that M. Dubois of Bourg en Bresse, in a memoir otherwise valuable, is of opinion, that the larvæ cannot be hatched below (104). I have repeatedly made the experiment with the most accurate thermometers, and obtained a very different result. When the thermometer rises to (104°), the heat is so much greater than the eggs require, that it is intolerable to the bees. M. Dubois has been deceived, I imagine, by too suddenly introducing his thermometer into a cluster of bees, and putting them in agitation, the mercury has rose higher than it should naturally do. Had he delayed introducing the thermometer, he would soon have seen it fall to between 95 and 97, which is the usual temperature of hives in summer. In August this year, when the thermometer in the open air stood at 94, it did not rise above 99 in the most populous hives. The bees had little motion, and a great many rested on the board of the hive.
APPENDIX.
[The following passages are chiefly engrossed in the substance of the work, but the Translator, as has already been observed, for various reasons, judges it expedient to transfer them to an appendix. In his opinion these very minute details rather interrupt the connexion of the narrative, however interesting they may be considered, and they pertain more to researches purely anatomical.
The Translator has likewise in some instances incorporated several long and important notes with the text; because it appears to him that they actually belong to the substance of the treatise. These are the only variations from the original with respect to arrangement.]
* * * * *
Swammerdam has given an imperfect description of the ovary of the queen. He observes that he has never been able to find the termination of the oviducts in the abdomen, nor any other parts excepting those which he has described. "Notwithstanding all my exertions, I never could discover the site of the vulva, partly because I had not all my apparatus with me in the country, when investigating this subject, and partly from my apprehension of injuring other parts by pressure, which I had then occasion to examine. However, I have clearly observed a muscular swelling of the oviduct, where approaching the last ring of the belly; that it then contracts and afterwards dilates in becoming membranaceous. As I was desirous of preserving the poison bag, which is situated exactly here, along with, the muscles aiding the motion of the sting, I could follow the oviduct no farther. However, in another female, it appeared that the vulva is in the last ring of the abdomen, and under the sting. The parts expanding only while the queen lays, renders it extremely difficult to penetrate the aperture."
We have attempted to discover what has escaped the indefatigable Swammerdam. But his observation that the research can be made to the greatest advantage, at the time of laying, has paved the way to us. We have remarked that the oviduct did not issue from the body, but that the eggs fall into a kind of cavity, where they are retained several seconds before being laid.
On the sixth of August, we took a very fertile queen, and holding her gently by the wings in a supine position, the whole belly was exposed. She seized the extremity with her second pair of legs, and curved it as much as possible. This seeming an unfavourable position for laying, we forced her to stretch it out. The queen, oppressed with the necessity of laying, could no longer retain her eggs. The lower part of the last ring then separated so far from the upper part as to leave some of the inside discovered. In this cavity the sting lay above in its sheath. As the queen now made new efforts, we saw an egg fall into the cavity from the end of the oviduct. The lips then closed for several seconds; they opened again, and, in a much shorter time, dropped the egg from the cavity.
From our own observations we found that the seminal fluid of drones coagulated on exposure to the air, and from several experiments had so little doubt on the subject, that whenever the female returned with the external marks of fecundation, we thought we recognised it in the whitish substance filling the sexual organs. It did not then occur to us to dissect the females to ascertain the fact more particularly: but this year, whether designing to neglect nothing, or to examine the distension of the female organs, we determined to dissect several. To our infinite surprise, what we had supposed the residue of the prolific fluid, actually proved the genital organs of the male, which separate from his body during copulation, and remain in the female.
We procured a number of queens according to Schirach's method for the purpose of dissection, and set them at liberty that they might seek the males. The first which did so, was seized the instant she returned, and without dissection spontaneously exhibited what we were so impatient to behold. Examining the under part of the belly, we saw the oval end of a white substance which distended the sexual organs. The belly was in constant motion, by alternate extension and contraction. Already had we prepared to sever the rings, and by dissection to ascertain the cause of these motions; when the queen curving her belly very much, and endeavouring to reach its extremity with her hind legs, seized the distending substance with her claws, and evidently made an effort to extract it. She at last succeeded, and it fell before us. We expected a shapeless mass of coagulated fluid; what therefore was our surprise to find it part of the same male that had rendered this queen a mother. At first we could not credit our eyes; but after examining it in every position, both with the naked eye, and a powerful magnifier, we distinctly recognised it to be that part which M. de Reaumur calls the _lenticular_ body, or the _lentil_, in the following description.{O}
'Opening a drone there appears a portion formed by the assemblage of several parts, often whiter than milk. This on investigation is found to be principally composed of four oblong pieces. The two largest are attached to a kind of twisted cord, fig. 4. r, called by Swammerdam the root of the penis; and he has denominated seminal vessels, s. s. two long bodies that we are about to consider. Other two bodies oblong like the preceding, but shorter and not half the diameter, he calls the _vasa deferentia_, d. d. Each communicates with one of the seminal vessels near, g. g. where they unite to the twisted cord, r. From the other extremity proceeds a very delicate vessel, which, after several involutions, terminates in a body, t. a little larger, but difficult to disengage from the surrounding tracheæ. Swammerdam considers these two bodies, t. t. the testicles. Thus there are two parts of considerable size, communicating with other two still thicker and longer. These four bodies are of a cellular texture, and full of a milky fluid, which may be squeezed out. This long twisted cord, r, to which the largest of the seminal vessels is connected, this cord, I say, is doubtless the channel by which the milky fluid issues. After several plications, it terminates in a kind of bladder or fleshy sac, i. i. In different males this part is of various length and flatness. By calling it the _lenticular_ body, or the lentil, it receives a name descriptive of the figure it presents in all males whose internal parts have acquired consistency in spirit of wine. The body, l. i. is therefore a lentil, a little thickened, of which one half, or nearly so, of the circumference is edged along the outline by two chesnut coloured scaly plates, e. i. A small white cord, the real edge of the lentil, is visible, and separates them. This lentil is a little oblong, and, for convenience, we shall ascribe two extremities to it, the anterior and posterior. The anterior, l, next the head, is where the canal, r, dividing the seminal vessels is inserted, and the opposite part; i. next the anus, the posterior. The two scaly plates, e. i. e. i, proceed from the vicinity of this last part, whence each enlarges to cover part of the lentil. Under the broadest part of each plate, there is a division formed by two soft points of unequal length; the largest of which is on the circumference of the lentil. Besides these two scaly plates, there are two others, n. n. of the same colour, narrower, and fully one half shorter, each of which is situated very near the preceding, and originates close to the origin of that it accompanies, namely, at the posterior part of the lentil. The rest of the lentil is white and membranaceous. From behind proceeds a tube, k. a canal also white and membranaceous, but it is difficult to judge of its diameter, for the membranes, of which it consists, are evidently in folds. To one side of this pipe is attached a fleshy part, p. somewhat pallet shaped, one side is concave, and the edges plaited; the other side is convex. In certain places the plaits rise and project from the rest of the outline, and form a kind of rays; the pallet appears prettily figured. Though lying with the concave side applied to the lentil, it is not fixed to it. Swammerdam seems to consider this pallet as the characteristic part of the male.
'Though the parts we have described are the most conspicuous in the male, they are neither those which protrude first, nor when protruded are the most remarkable. On viewing from the opposite edge of the lentil, forming the division of the two great scaly plates, a sac or canal, k. proceeding from the posterior part of the lentil, there is distinctly visible the body u, which we call the arc; where there are five transverse hairy bands of a yellow colour, while the rest is white. This arc seems out of the membranaceous canal because it is covered only by a very transparent membrane. One end almost reaches the lenticular body, and the other terminates where the membranaceous canal joins the folded yellow membranes, m. which form a species of sac, that is applied to the sides of the aperture, adapted for the genital organs passing through. These reddish membranes are those that appear first on pressure, and form this elongated portion, at whose end is a kind of hairy mask. Finally, with the sac formed by the reddish membranes, there are connected two appendages, c. c. of reddish yellow, and red at the end, s. These are what appear externally like horns.{P}'
The lenticular substance, l. i. provided with each scaly lamina, are the only parts of those described by M. de Reaumur, that we have found engaged in the organs of our queens. The canal, r, by Swammerdam denominated the root of the penis, breaks in copulation; and we have seen its fragments at the place where it unites to the end of the lentil, l. towards the anterior extremity; but we have found no traces of the canal, k, formed of involuted membranes, which in the body of the male proceeds from the posterior end of the lentil, l. i. nor of the plaited pallet, p. adhering to this canal, called by Swammerdam the penis from its resemblance to that of other animals, though he is not of opinion that this point, which is not perforated, can perform the functions of a real penis, and hold the principal part in generation. The canal, k, therefore, and all appertaining to it, must break at i, quite close to the posterior part of the lentil, since we found no remains of the lenticular bodies left by the fecundating males, in the body of our females. The canal, r, which Swammerdam calls the root of the penis, with greater reason than he was himself aware, is not extended in the body of the male as represented by the figure here engraved, but this long twilled canal consists of several involutions, from the seminal vessels whence it proceeds, into the lenticular body where it terminates, and where it conveys the fluid. This canal therefore can extend during copulation, and allow the lenticular substance to protrude out of the body of the males.
It is evident this may be the case during copulation as is seen on opening a drone, for, by endeavouring to displace the lenticular body, the involutions of the cord disappear, and it extends much more than necessary for the lentil to protrude from the body; and if we attempt to separate it farther, the canal breaks at l. close to the lentil, and at the same place where it breaks in copulation.
By dissection two nerves are discovered, towards the origin of the canal, r. inserted into the seminal vessels and distribute in them, and towards the root of the penis many ramifications undoubtedly serving for the motion of these parts. Two small parts, perceptible near the nerves, are two ligaments for retaining the generative organs in their proper place, so that except the root of the penis, they cannot be drawn out without some exertion; it and the lenticular body however can protrude, and actually do so during copulation. A certain degree of pressure forces all these parts from the body of the male, but they spontaneously return, and appear reversed.
Swammerdam, and after him M. de Reaumur have admired this mechanism; they have thought, indeed, that the return should be occasioned by the effect of the air inflating the parts, and they supposed that the male organs proceeded from the body, and returned during copulation, the same as when forced out by pressure. Following their example, we have pressed them from the body of many males; we have a thousand times witnessed this wonderful return, which they detail with the greatest precision; but our males never survived the operation. We have seen, as M. de Reaumur, a few males protrude them spontaneously, even some of the parts inverted, but at that moment they died, and were unable to retract the parts which a pressure, most likely accidental, had forced out. Thus it is improbable that the male organs protrude by turning out of themselves in copulation; and the details which follow prove incontestibly, that it is otherwise. Had not Swammerdam been prejudiced with this opinion, he would have seen that the lenticular body can proceed from the body in erection without reversing itself; he could have proportioned the tortuous canal, which he calls the root of the penis; he would have seen that, at certain times, it can be sufficiently extended to allows the lenticular substance to protrude; he would have discovered the real use of the scaly plates; he would have explained that of the canal k, of the plaited pallet q, and the movements of all these parts, more admirable perhaps than the inversion which he was the first to observe.
Our observations incontestibly prove copulation. The portion of the males found engaged in the body of our queens, hitherto called the lenticular substance, may be denominated a penis both from its position and use. The same surface is presented by it in the queen as in the body of the male, which is proved by the position of the laminæ, e. e. attached to the interior of the penis, when found in the queen. It is evident, if the supposed inversion took place, the laminæ would be found within the posterior part of the penis; and we should see them through its membrane, by their concave side, instead of which the convex surface is presented when in the vulva of females, the same as in the body of the males. But what is the use of these laminæ? From their figure, hardness, relative position with respect to each other, and their situation at the extremity of the penis, we cannot doubt they are real pincers. However, to ascertain the fact, we found it necessary to see their position, and that of the penis itself in the females. For this purpose, we prevented some of the queens from extracting the parts left by the impregnating males, and by dissection we discovered that the laminæ were pincers as we had conjectured.
The penis was situated under the sting of the queens, and pressed against the upper region of the belly. It was supported by the posterior end, against the extremity of the vagina, or excretory canal. There we were sensible of the motion and use of the scaly pieces. Their extremities were separated a little more than in the male, and pressed between them some of the female parts below the excretory canal. The extreme minuteness of these parts prevented us from distinguishing them clearly, but the effort necessary to separate and remove the penis from the female, satisfied us of the use of these laminæ.
Inspecting a male from above, the convex side of the plates, e. e. is presented, and the summit of the angle formed by their origin. When in the body of the female, they are in the inverse position; what was above in the male is now below, and the extremity of the pincers directed upwards. This makes us suspect that in copulation the male mounts on the back of the female, but we are far from asserting it positively. It may be asked whether that part we call the penis, is the sole part introduced into the female during copulation? We have carefully investigated this, and can affirm, that it is the only one of all those described by M. de Reaumur, which has been found in our females. But we have discovered a new part that escaped both him and Swammerdam, which appears from the following experiment.
Separating the lenticular substance from the excretory canal, where it was attached, we drew along with it a white body, adhering by one extremity, and having the other engaged in the vagina. Towards the end of the lentil, where the substance adhered, it appeared cylindrical, then it swelled, and again contracted, to dilate anew in a greater degree than at first; afterwards it contracted and terminated in a point. A powerful magnifier was required to see all this. When pulled from the lenticular body, the part was commonly broke, and also when extracted by the queens from themselves. The figure and situation seemed to authorise our considering it the penis itself, and the lenticular body only an appendage. But the last queen we examined exhibited a peculiarity that induced us to doubt the fact, and led us to suspect that this body is nothing else than the seminal fluid itself, moulded and coagulated in the vagina, and which from its viscosity adheres to the lenticular substance, and accompanies it when separated from the vagina. In this queen was found a little extravasated white matter, near the opening of the vagina. This, though at first liquid, soon coagulated in the air as the seminal fluid of drones does. In separating the lenticular body from the vagina, we drew along with it a thread which broke near the lentil; and seemed of too little consistence for the penis of a male. The lenticular bodies, found in our queens, appeared larger than in the males we dissected, and we have remarked with M. de Reaumur, that these parts are not of equal size in every male.
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_Experiment 1._--On the tenth of July, we set successively at liberty three virgin queens four or five days old. Two flew away several times; their absence was short and fruitless. The third profited better by her liberty; she departed thrice; the first and second time her absence was short; but the third lasted thirty-five minutes. She returned in a very different state; and in such as allowed no doubt of her employment, for she exhibited the part of a male that had rendered her a mother. We seized her wings with one hand, and in the other received the lenticular body, of which she had disengaged herself with her claws. The posterior part was armed with two pincers, e. e. shelly and elastic, which could be drawn asunder, and then resumed their original position. Towards the anterior part of the lentil appeared the fragment of the root of the penis; this canal had broke half a line from the lenticular body. We allowed the queen to enter her habitation, and adapted the entrance so that she could not leave it unknown to us.
On the seventeenth we found no eggs in the hive; the queen was as slender as the first day; therefore the male, with which she had copulated, had not impregnated her eggs. She was again set at liberty; after twice departing, she returned with evidence of a second copulation. We then confined her, and the eggs she afterwards laid proved that the second copulation had been more successful than the first and that there are some males more fit for impregnating queens than others. However, it is very rare that the first copulation is inefficient; we have only seen two that required it twice; all the rest were impregnated by the first.
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_Experiment 2._--On the eighteenth we put at liberty a virgin queen twenty-seven days old, she departed twice. Her second absence was twenty-eight minutes, and she returned with the proofs of copulation. We prevented her from entering, and put her under a glass to see how she would disengage the male organs. This she was unable to accomplish, having only the table and sides of the glass for support; therefore we introduced a bit of comb; thus providing the same conveniences as are in a hive. Fixing herself on _it_ by the first four legs, she stretched out the two last, and extending them along her belly seemed to press it between them. At length introducing her claws between the two parts of the last ring, she seized the lenticular body, and dropped it on the table. The posterior part was provided with shelly pincers, under which and in the same direction was a grey cylindrical body. The end farthest from the lentil was sensibly thicker than that adhering to it, and terminated in a point. This point was double, and open like the bill of a bird, which induces us to think the body was broken, a conjecture supported by the following experiment.
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_Experiment 3._--On the nineteenth we set at liberty a queen four days old; she departed twice; her first absence was short; the second lasted thirty minutes, and then she returned with the marks of fecundation. As we wished to obtain the male organs entire, it was necessary to prevent the queen from breaking them by extracting them with her feet; we therefore suddenly killed her, and cut off the last rings in order to lay the vulva open. But though deprived of animation, so much life remained in these parts that the lenticular body was thrown out spontaneously. Under the pincers appeared the remnant of a cylindrical body which had broken near the origin and remained in the female. This body was very small at the origin; it afterwards sensibly enlarged; next contracting by degrees, it terminated in a sharp point. We found the point engaged up to the gland in the excretory canal, and the rest in the vulva.
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_Experiment 4._--We set two virgin queens at liberty on the twentieth. The first had been abroad on the preceding days, but the scarcity of males prevented her from being previously fecundated. She returned with the organs of a male. We tried to prevent her from extracting them, but she did this so expeditiously with her feet, that we could not accomplish it. She was then allowed to enter the hive.
The second queen departed twice. Her first absence was short as usual; the second lasted about half an hour, and she returned impregnated. Having killed her as suddenly as possible, we laid open the vulva. The lenticular body was deposited as in every queen hitherto dissected; the pincers were situated under the excretory canal. Some parts not easily distinguishable were pressed between the laminæ, and their office seemed to consist in forcing the extremity of the lentil to approach the orifice of the vagina, and apply so forcibly to it that some exertion was necessary to separate them. We previously examined them, with a very powerful magnifier. Then a peculiarity which had escaped us was perceptible. In drawing out the lenticular body, there proceeded from the vagina a minute part, v. adhering to the posterior end of the lentil, and situated below the plates. It spontaneously retracted into the lentil, like the horns of a snail. It appeared white, very short, and cylindrical. Under the pincers was a little half coagulated seminal fluid at the bottom of the vulva. Though much could be expressed, there was none pure; it was almost liquid, but soon coagulated, and formed a whitish inorganic mass. This observation carefully made removed all our doubts, and demonstrated that what we had taken for the penis of males was nothing but the seminal fluid, which had coagulated and assumed the interior figure of the vagina. The only hard part introduced by the male, was the short cylindrical point which retracted into the lentil, when we separated it. Its situation and office prove that it is there we must look for the issue of the seminal fluid, if we can hope to find an opening, when not engaged in copulation.
We found this new part in the first drone we dissected. By pressing the seminal vessels, the white liquid then escaped downwards to the root of the penis r. and into the lenticular body, l. i. which became sensibly swoln. We prevented the fluid from returning, and by new pressure of the lentil forced it to advance. However, none escaped, but we saw at the posterior end of the lenticular body, and under the scaly pincers, a small white cylindrical substance, the same in appearance as that we had found engaged in the vagina of the queen. This part retracted on pressure, and then returned.
I request you, Sir, while perusing this letter, to inspect the figure of the male sexual organs published by M. de Reaumur, and which are copied here. The descriptions are most accurate, and present a just idea of the situation of these parts when in the male's body. We readily conceive how they appear when left in the female by copulation. This detail will sufficiently indicate the situation and figure of the new