Observations on Bees. By John Hunter, Esq. F. R. S.

VIII. Observations on Bees. By John Hunter, Esq. F.R.S. Read February 23, 1792. Of the Common Bee. The common bee, from a number of peculiarities in its economy, has called forth the attention of the curious; and, from the profit arising from its labours, it has become the object of the interested; therefore, no wonder it has excited universal attention, even from the savage to the most civilized people: but it has hardly been considered by the anatomist; at least the two modes of investigation have not gone so much hand in hand, as they ought to have done. The history of the bee has rather been considered as a fit subject for the curious at large, whence more has been conceived, than observed. Swammerdam, indeed, has rather erred on the other side, having, with great industry, been very minute on the particular structure of the bee. I shall here observe, that it is commonly not only unnecessary to be minute in our description of parts in natural history, but in general improper. It is unnecessary, when it does not apply to any thing, but the thing itself, more especially if it be of no consequence; but whenever it applies, then it should so far be treated accurately. Minutiae beyond what is essential, tire the mind, and render that which should entertain along with instruction, heavy and disagreeable; the more so too, if the parts are small, where the sense can only take them in singly, and the mind can hardly comprehend the whole, or apply all the parts combined to any consequent action. This has been too much the case with Swammerdam; he often attempted too much accuracy in his description of minute things. But the natural history of insects has not been sufficiently understood at large, so as to throw light on this subject where there was an analogy, and where, without such analogy, it must appear in the bee alone unintelligible, from the obscurity attending some parts of their economy; for there is hardly any species of animals but what has some of its economy obscure; and probably this is as much so in this insect, as in any other class of animals we are at one season of the year almost daily seeing; yet these parts of the economy may be evident in some other species of the same tribe or genus, and thus be cleared up, from analogy, so that the species assist each other in their demonstration. This is evident in the whole tribe of flying insects, for what is lost, or cannot be made out in the one, may be demonstrated in another: and we find there are some things in the economy of the bee that cannot be seen or demonstrated in it alone, but which are evident in some other insects; and while they possess the same parts, and other circumstances are similar, we must conclude the uses of those parts are similar in both; for whenever a circumstance in one animal cannot be found out in that animal, but can in another, then the natural conclusion is, that the uses are similar in both. Though the bee may be classed in some degree among the domestic animals, yet from there being such a cluster of them, and because they are an offensive and irritable animal, their actions are rendered very obscure, and can only be observed by little starts; often we can only see the effects, which renders the knowledge of their oeconomy still imperfect; they would in many cases seem to evade our wishes; they often remove out of our sight part of their oeconomy, when they can. Thus they often remove their eggs and young. Many quadrupeds do this, as cats, &c. and I have reason to believe, that birds can remove their eggs, at least I have reason to suspect the sparrow of this. As the bee is an insect, it has most things peculiar to that class of animals: such as are common are not to be taken notice of in the history of this insect, but only its peculiarities which distinguish it from all others, and constitute it to be a bee; and as bees form a large tribe of insects, it is the more singular peculiarities that constitute a distinct species of this tribe. As most parts of the oeconomy of insects have not been in every respect understood, and although now known in some insects, yet cannot be observed in the bee, but which accord with many circumstances attending this insect, therefore such must be brought into the present history of the bee, to render it more complete. I shall not be minute in the anatomy of this animal, as that would be too tedious and uninteresting. When we talk of the oeconomy of the colony, such as the secreting wax, making combs, collecting farina, honey, feeding the maggots, covering in the chrysalis, and the honey, stinging, &c.; it is the labouring bees that are meant. In pursuing any subject, most things come to light as it were by accident; that is, many things arise out of investigation that were not at first conceived, and even misfortunes in experiments have brought things to our knowledge that were not, and probably could not have been previously conceived: on the other hand, I have often devised experiments by the fireside, or in my carriage, and have also conceived the result; but when I tried the experiment, the result was different; or I found that the experiment could not be attended with all the circumstances that were suggested. As bees, from their numbers, hide very much their operations, it is necessary to have such contrivances as will explore their oeconomy. Hives, with glass lights in them, often shew some of their operations, and when wholly of glass, still more; but as they form such a cluster, and begin their comb in the centre, little can be seen till their work becomes enlarged, and, by that time, they have produced a much larger quantity of bees, so as still to obscure their progress. Very thin glass hives are the best calculated for exposing their operations; the distance from side to side about three inches; of a height and length sufficient for a swarm of bees to complete one summer's work in. As one perpendicular comb, the whole length and height of the hive, in the centre, dividing it into two, is the best position for exposing their operations, it is necessary to give them a lead or direction to form it so; therefore it is proper to make a ridge along the top from end to end, in the centre, between the two sides, for they like to begin their comb from an eminence; if we wished to have them transverse, or oblique, it would only be necessary to make transverse, or oblique ridges in the hive. I had one made of two broad pieces of plate-glass, with glass ends, which answered for simple exposure very well; but I often saw operations going on, when I wished to have caught some of the bees, or to take out a piece of comb, &c.; therefore I had hives made of the same shape and size, but with different panes of glass, each pane opening with hinges, so that if I saw any thing going on that I wished to examine more minutely or immediately, I opened the pane at this part, and executed what I wished, as much as was in my power; this I was obliged to do with great caution, as often the comb was fastened to the glass at this part. When I saw some operations going on, the dates or periods of which I wished to ascertain, such as the time of laying eggs, of hatching, &c. I made a little dot with white paint opposite to the cell where the egg was laid, and put down the date. From these animals forming colonies, and from a vast variety of effects being produced, and with a degree of attention and nicety, that seem even to vie with man; man, not being in the least jealous, has wished to bestow on them more than they possess, viz. a reasoning faculty; while every action is only instinctive, and what they cannot avoid or alter, except from necessity, not from fancy. They have been supposed to be legislators, even mathematicians: indeed, upon a superficial view, there is some shew of reason for such suppositions; but people have gone much further, and have filled up from their imagination every blank, but in so unnatural a way, that one reads it, as if it were the description of a monster. Probably, the best way of treating the history of this insect, is only to describe what is, and the reader will immediately see where authors have been inventing; however, there are some assertions that should be particularly taken notice of, such as forming queen bees at pleasure. Countries that have but little variety in their seasons may have insects, whose oeconomy is well adapted to this uniformity, and which would not be suited to a climate whose seasons are very different; for insects of countries, whose seasons are strongly marked, as in this, have a period in their life which it is little in our power to investigate, and can scarcely be discovered but by accident, for experiments often give little assistance; therefore we are obliged to fill up this blank by reasoning, and from analogy, where we have any. This period is principally the winter, in those insects who live through that season. Animals of season are somewhat like most vegetables; while the common bee is only an animal of seasons in the common actions of life, or what may be called its voluntary actions, and therefore is somewhat like the human species, suited to every country; which may be the reason why it is so universal an animal, for I believe bees are one of the most universal animals known: yet this may arise from cultivation, in consequence of which, they have been brought into climates, where, of themselves, they would not have come. Insects are so small, and so few of them are capable of being domesticated, that the duration of their life is not easily ascertained; therefore we are to rely more on circumstantial, than on positive or demonstrative proof; and perhaps the life of the common bee may be least in our power to know, for their numbers in the same society make it almost impossible to be ascertained. From their forming a colony, or society, which keeps stationary, the continuance of this society is known, but to what age the individual lives, is not known; we are certain, however, that it is only the labourers and queens that continue the society, for the males die the same year they are formed. From their fixing on the branches of trees, under projecting exposed surfaces, when they swarm, we should be inclined to suppose that they were animals of a warm climate; yet their providing liberally for the change of climate, or rather for a change of season, would, on the contrary, make us believe they were adapted for changeable climates; or rather, these two circumstances should make us suppose they were fitted for both; and their universality proves it. And I do conceive, that in a pretty uniform warm climate, their oeconomy may be somewhat different from what it is in the changeable, as they would not be under the same necessity to lay up so much store, and probably might employ their cells in breeding, for a much longer period: however, a good climate agrees with them best, as also a good season in an indifferent climate, such as Britain. We find the common bee in Europe, Asia, Africa, and America. That they may be, or should be in the three first, is easily supposed, but how they came to America is not so readily conceived; for although a kind of manageable animal, yet they do not like such long confinement in their hives, as would carry them to the West Indies, excepting in an ice-house; for when I have endeavoured to confine them in their hives, they have been so restless as to destroy themselves. The female and the working bee, I believe, in every species have stings, which renders them an animal of offence, indeed, but rather of defence; for although they make an attack, I believe it is by way of defence, excepting when they attack one another, which is seldom or never with their stings. As this belongs more to the labourers, it shall be considered when I treat of them in particular. Of the whole bee tribe, the common bee is the easiest irritated; for as they have property, they are jealous of it, and seem to defend it; but when not near it, they are quiet, and must be hurt before they will sting; with all this disposition for defence, which is only to secure their property, or themselves, when more closely attacked, yet they have no covetousness, nor a disposition to obstruct others. Thus two bees or more will be sucking at the same flower, without the first possessor claiming it as his right: a hundred may be about the same drop of honey, if it is beyond the boundaries of their own right; but what they have collected they defend. It is easily known when they mean to sting; they fly about the object of their anger very quickly, and by the quickness of their motion evade being struck or attacked; which is discovered by the sound of their wings, as if going to give a stroke as they fly, a very different noise from that of the wings when coming home of a fine evening loaded with farina, or honey; it is then a soft contented noise. When a single bee is attacked by several others, it seems the most passive animal possible, making no resistance, and even hardly seeming to wish to get away; and in this manner they allow themselves to be killed. They are perhaps the only insect that feeds in the winter, and therefore the only one that lays up external store; and as all animals, whether insects or not, that keep quiet in the winter, without either eating at all, or eating very little in proportion to what they do in the summer, grow fat and muscular in the summer, (which I term internal store,) we see why the common bee need not be fatter at one time than another; and accordingly we find them nearly of the same fatness the year round. There are accidents befalling hives of bees, that are not easily accounted for. I had a hive which in the month of November was become quite empty of bees, and upon examination had no honey in it, which was strong in the summer, and had violent attacks made upon it in October by wasps belonging to a nest in the garden, but appeared quiet when that nest was removed. Upon examining this hive, I found only five dead bees, and not a drop of honey in any one cell: there was a good deal of bee bread in different cells scattered up and down the comb, which was become white with mould on its surface. On the other hand, I have had swarms die in the winter in the hives, while there was great plenty of honey in the combs: what seemed remarkable, they all died with their probosces elongated, and in those which I opened, I found the stomachs full of honey, and their intestines full also of excrement, especially the last part. Of the Heat of Bees. Bees are, perhaps, the only insect that produces heat within itself, and were therefore intended to have a tolerably well-regulated warmth, without which, of course, they are very uncomfortable, and soon die; and which makes not only a part of their internal œconomy respecting the individual, but a part of their external, or common œconomy, and is therefore necessary to be known. The heat of bees is ascertainable by the thermometer, and I shall give the result of experiments made at two different seasons of the year. July 18th, at ten in the evening, wind northerly, thermometer at $54^\circ$, in the open air, I introduced it into the top of a hive full of bees, and in less than five minutes it rose to $82^\circ$. I let it stand all night; at five in the morning it was down at 79°; at nine the same morning, it had risen to 83°, and at one o'clock to 84°; and at nine in the evening it was down to 78°. December 30th, air at 35°, bees at 73°. Although bees support a heat nearly equal to that of a quadruped, yet their external covering is not different from that of insects which do not; there is no difference between their coat and a common fly's or wasp's, nor are they fatter, all which makes them bad retainers of heat; therefore they are chilly; and in a cold too severe for them to be comfortable in, they make up for their want of size singly, and get into clusters. A single bee has so little power of keeping itself warm, that it presently becomes numbed, and almost motionless; a common night in summer will produce this effect: a cold capable of producing such effects kills them soon, by which means vast numbers die; therefore a common bee is obliged to feed and live in society, to keep itself warm in cold weather. We know that the consumption of heat may be greater than the power of forming it; when that is the case, we become sensible of it, and then take on such actions as are either instinctive, such as arise naturally out of the impression, or as reason, custom, or habit direct. Many animals, upon the impression of cold, coil themselves up in their own fur, bringing all their extremities into the centre, or hollow of the belly; birds bring their feet under the belly, and thrust their bill between their wing and body; many, if not all, go to the warmest places, either from instinctive principle, or habit: but the bees have no other mode but forming clusters, and the larger the better. As they are easily affected by cold, their instinctive principle respecting cold is very strong, as likewise with regard to wet. MDCCXCII. I have seen a swarm hanging out at the door of a hive, ready to take flight, and then return; a chill has come on, of which I was not sensible, and in a few minutes the whole has gone back into the hive; and by the cold increasing, I have at length perceived the cause of their return. If rain is coming on, we observe them returning home in great quantities, and hardly any abroad. The eggs of bees require this heat as much as themselves, nor will the maggot live in a cold of $60^\circ$ or $70^\circ$, nor even their chrysalis. This warmth keeps the wax so soft, as to allow them to model it with ease. In glass hives, or those that have windows of glass in them, we often find a dew on the inside of the glass, especially when the glass is colder than the air within: whether this is perspiration from the bees, both from their external surface and lungs, or evaporation from the honey, I cannot say. Bees are very cleanly animals respecting themselves, although not so respecting the remains of their young. They, I believe, seldom or never evacuate their excrement in the hive. I have known them confined many days without discharging the contents of the rectum; and the moment they got abroad, they evacuated in the air, when flying: and they appear to be very nice in their bodies, for I have often detected them cleaning one another, more especially if by accident they are besmeared with honey. This animal may be considered alone, or so far as concerns its own economy as an individual, which is common to the most solitary animals; but it can also be considered as a member of society, in which it is taking an active part, and in which it becomes an object of great curiosity. To consider this society individually, it may be said to consist of a female breeder, female non-breeders, and males: but to consider it as a community, it may be said to consist only of female breeders and non-breeders, the males answering no other purpose than simply as a male, and are only temporary; and it is probable, the female breeder is to be considered in no other light than as a layer of eggs, and that she only influences the non-breeders by her presence, being only a bond of union, for without her they seem to have no tie; it is her presence that makes them an aggregate animal. May we not suppose that the offspring of the queen have an attachment to the mother, somewhat similar to the attachment of young birds to the female that brings them up? for although the times of their attachment are not equal, yet it is the dependence which each has on its mother, that constitutes the bond; for bees have none without her: however, the similarity is not exact, for young animals who have lost their nurse will herd together, and jointly make the best shifts they can, because in future they are to become single animals; but bees have an eternal instinctive dependence on the mother; probably from there not being distinct sexes. When the queen is lost, this attachment is broke; they give up industry, probably die; or, we may suppose, join some other hive. This is not the case with those of this tribe, whose queen singly forms a colony; for although the queen is destroyed, yet they go on with that work which is their lot; as the wasp, hornet, and humble bee. Most probably the whole oeconomy of the bee, which we so much admire, belongs to the non-breeders, and depends on their instinctive powers being set to work by the presence of the breeders, that being their only enjoyment; therefore when we talk of the wonderful economy of bees, it is chiefly the labourers at large we are to admire, although the queen gets the principal credit, for the extent of their instinctive properties. This economy, in its appearances and operations, is somewhat similar to human society, but very different in its first causes and mode of conduct. The human species sets up its own standard; the bee has one set up by nature, and therefore fulfils all the necessary purposes. This standard of influence, which is the breeder, is called the queen, and I shall keep to the name, although I do not allow her voluntary influence or power. The non-breeders are what compose the hive, or what may be called the community at large; and the males, are mere males: each of these parts of the community I shall hereafter consider separately. To take up the common bee in any one period of the year, or, in other words, in any one month, and carry it round to the same, and observe what happens in that time, is probably including the whole economy of bees; for although they may live more than one year, which I believe is not known, from its not being easily ascertained, yet each year can only be a repetition of the last, as I conceive they are complete in the first; therefore the history of one year may be said to make a whole, and of course it is not material at what time in the circle we begin the history. Perhaps the best time to begin the history of such insects, as only come to full growth the season they are bred, and live through the winter, and breed the summer following, is when they emerge from the torpid state, and begin to breed; but it might be thought that the common bee is an exception to this rule, because they begin early in the spring to breed, generally before they can be observed; and as they breed to form a colony, which is to go off from the old stock, in order to set out anew, it might seem most natural to begin with this colony, and trace it through its various actions of life for one year, when it, as it were, regenerates itself, and comes round to the same point again, that the old stock was in when it threw off this colony. Bees, like every other animal that is taken care of in the time of breeding, or incubation, and nursed to the age of taking care of itself, cannot be said to have a period in which we can begin its natural history; but in some other insects there is such a period, for they can be traced from an egg, becoming totally independent of the parent from the moment of being laid, as the silk-worm, &c. There are three periods at which the history of the bee may commence: first, in the spring, when the queen begins to lay her eggs; in the summer, at the commencement of a new colony; or in the autumn, when they are going into winter-quarters. I shall begin the particular history of the bee with the new colony, when nothing is formed; for it begins then every thing that can possibly happen afterwards. When a hive sends off a colony, it is commonly in the month of June, but that will vary according to the season, for in a mild spring bees sometimes swarm in the middle of May, and very often at the latter end of it. Before they come off, they commonly hang about the mouth of the hole, or door of the hive, for some days, as if they had not sufficient room within for such hot weather, which I believe is very much the case; for if cold or wet weather come on, they stow themselves very well, and wait for fine weather. But swarming appears to be rather an operation arising from necessity, for they would seem not naturally to swarm, because if they have an empty space to fill, they do not swarm; therefore by increasing the size of the hive, the swarming is prevented. This period is much longer in some than in others. For some evenings before they come off, is often heard a singular noise, a kind of ring, or sound of a small trumpet; by comparing it with the notes of the piano-forte, it seemed to be the same sound with the lower A of the treble. The swarm commonly consists of three classes; a female, or females,* males, and those commonly called mules, which are supposed to be of no sex, and are the labourers; the whole about two quarts in bulk, making about six or seven thousand. It is a question that cannot easily be determined, whether this old stock sends off entirely young of the same season, and whether the whole of their young ones, or only part. As the males are entirely bred in the same season, part go off; but part must stay, and most probably it is so with the others. They commonly come off in the heat of the day, often immediately after a shower; who takes the lead I do not know, but should suppose it was the queen. When one goes off, they all immediately follow, and fly about seemingly in great confusion, although there is one principle actuating the whole. They soon appear to be directed to some fixed place; such as the branch of a tree or bush, the cavities of old trees, holes of houses leading into some hollow place; and whenever the stand is made, they all immediately repair to it, till they are all collected. But it would seem, in some cases, that they had not fixed upon any resting * I have reason to believe that never more than one female comes off with a swarm. place before they came off, or if they had, that they were either disturbed, if it was near, or that it was at a great distance; for, after hovering some time, as if undetermined, they fly away, mount up into the air, and go off with great velocity. When they have fixed upon their future habitation, they immediately begin to make their combs, for they have the materials within themselves. I have reason to believe that they fill their crops with honey when they come away; probably from the stock in the hive. I killed several of those that came away, and found their crops full, while those that remained in the hive had their crops not near so full: some of them came away with farina on their legs, which I conceive to be rather accidental. I may just observe here, that a hive commonly sends off two, sometimes three swarms in a summer; but that the second is commonly less than the first, and the third less than the second; and this last has seldom time to provide for the winter: they shall often threaten to swarm, but do not; whether the threatening is owing to too many bees, and their not swarming is owing to there being no queen, I do not know. It sometimes happens that the swarm shall go back again; but in such instances I have reason to think that they have lost their queen, for the hives to which their swarm have come back do not swarm the next warm day, but shall hang out for a fortnight, or more, and then swarm; and when they do, the swarm is commonly much larger than before, which makes me suspect that they waited for the queen that was to have gone off with the next swarm. So far we have set the colony in motion. The materials of their dwelling, or comb, which is the wax, is the next consideration, with the mode of forming, preparing, or disposing of it. In giving a totally new account of the wax, I shall first show it can hardly be what it has been supposed to be. First, I shall observe that the materials, as they are found composing the comb, are not to be found in the same state (as a composition) in any vegetable, where they have been supposed to be got. The substance brought in on their legs, which is the farina of the flowers of plants, is, in common, I believe, imagined to be the materials of which the wax is made, for it is called by most the wax: but it is the farina, for it is always of the same colour as the farina of the flower where they are gathering; and indeed we see them gathering it, and we also see them covered almost all over with it, like a dust; nevertheless, it has been supposed to be the wax, or that the wax was extracted from it. Reaumur is of this opinion. I made several experiments to see if there was such a quantity of oil in it, as would account for the quantity of wax to be formed, and to learn if it was composed of oil. I held it near the candle; it burnt, but did not smell like wax, and had the same smell, when burning, as farina when it was burnt. I observed that this substance was of different colours on different bees, but always of the same colour on both legs of the same bee; whereas new made comb was all of one colour. I observed, that it was gathered with more avidity for old hives, where the comb is complete, than for those hives where it is only begun, which we could hardly conceive if it was the materials of wax: also we may observe, that at the very beginning of a hive, the bees seldom bring in any substance on their legs for two or three days, and after that the farina gatherers begin to increase; for now some cells are formed to hold it as a store, and some eggs are laid, which when hatched will require this substance as food, and which will be ready when the weather is wet. I have also observed, that when the weather has either been so cold, or so wet, in June, as to hinder a young swarm from going abroad, they have yet in that time formed as much new comb, as they did in the same time when the weather was such as allowed them to go abroad. I have seen them bring it in about the latter end of March, and have observed, in glass hives, the bees with the farina on their legs, and have seen them disposing of it, as will be described hereafter. The wax is formed by the bees themselves; it may be called an external secretion of oil, and I have found that it is formed between each scale of the under side of the belly. When I first observed this substance, in my examination of the working bee, I was at a loss to say what it was: I asked myself if it was new scales forming, and whether they cast the old, as the lobster, &c. does? but it was to be found only between the scales, on the lower side of the belly. On examining the bees through glass hives, while they were climbing up the glass, I could see that most of them had this substance, for it looked as if the lower, or posterior edge of the scale, was double, or that there were double scales; but I perceived it was loose, not attached. Finding that the substance brought in on their legs was farina, intended, as appeared from every circumstance, to be the food of the maggot, and not to make wax; and not having yet perceived any thing that could give me the least idea of wax; I conceived these scales might be it, at least I thought it necessary to investigate them. I therefore took several on the point of a needle, and held them to a candle, where they melted, and immediately formed themselves into a round globe; upon which I no longer doubted but this was the wax, which opinion MDCCXCII. was confirmed to me by not finding those scales but in the building season. In the bottom of the hive we see a good many of the scales lying loose, some pretty perfect, others in pieces. I have endeavoured to catch them, either taking this matter out of themselves, from between the scales of the abdomen, or from one another, but never could satisfy myself in this respect: however, I once caught a bee examining between the scales of the belly of another, but I could not find that it took any thing from between. We very often see some of the bees wagging their belly, as if tickled, running round, and to and fro, for only a little way, followed by one or two other bees, as if examining them. I conceived they were probably shaking out the scales of wax, and that the others were ready upon the watch to catch them, but I could not absolutely determine what they did. It is with these scales that they form the cells called the comb, but perhaps not entirely, for, I believe, they mix farina with it; however, this only occasionally, when probably the secretion is not in great plenty. I have some reason to think, that where no other substance is introduced, the thickness of the scale is the same with that of the sides of the comb; if so, then a comb may be no more than a number of these united; but a great deal of the comb seems to be too thick for this, and, indeed, would appear to be a mixture, similar to the covering of the chrysalis. The wax naturally is white, but when melted from the comb at large, it is yellow. I apprehended this might arise from its being stained with honey, the excrement of the maggots, and with the bee-bread. I steeped some white comb in honey, boiled some with farina, as also with old comb, but I could not say that it was made yellower. Wax, by bleaching, is brought back to its natural colour, which is also a proof that its colour is derived from some mixture. I have reason to believe that they take the old comb, when either broken down, or by any accident rendered useless, and employ it again; but this can only be with combs that have had no bees hatched in them, for the wax cannot be separated from the silk afterwards. Reaumur supposed that they new worked up the old materials, because he found the covering of the chrysalis of a yellower colour than the other parts of the new comb; but this is always so, whether they have old yellow comb to work up, or not, as will be shewn. The bees who gather the farina, also form the wax, for I found it between their scales. The cells, or rather the congeries of cells, which compose the comb, may be said to form perpendicular plates, or partitions, which extend from top to bottom of the cavity in which they build them, and from side to side. They always begin at the top, or roof of the vault, in which they build, and work downwards; but if the upper part of this vault, to which their combs are fixed, is removed, and a dome is put over, they begin at the upper edge of the old comb, and work up into the new cavity at the top. They generally may be guided as to the direction of their new plates of comb, by forming ridges at top, to which they begin to attach their comb. In a long hive, if these ridges are longitudinal, their plates of comb will be longitudinal; if placed transverse, so will be the plates; and if oblique, the plates of comb will be oblique. Each plate consists of a double set of cells, whose bottoms form the partition between each set. The plates themselves are not very regularly arranged, not forming a regular plane where they might have done so; but are often adapted to the situation, or shape of the cavity in which they are built. The bees do not endeavour to shape their cavity to their work, as the wasps do, nor are the cells of equal depths, also fitting them to their situation; but as the breeding cells must all be of a given depth, they reserve a sufficient number for breeding in, and they put the honey into the others, as also into the shallow ones. The attachment of the comb round the cavity is not continued, but interrupted, so as to form passages; there are also passages in the middle of the plates, especially if there be a cross stick to support the comb; these allow of bees to go across from plate to plate. The substance which they use for attaching their combs to surrounding parts is not the same as the common wax; it is softer and tougher, a good deal like the substance with which they cover in their chrysalis, or the humble bee surrounds her eggs. It is probably a mixture of wax with farina. The cells are placed nearly horizontally, but not exactly so; the mouth raised a little, which probably may be to retain the honey the better; however this rule is not strictly observed, for often they are horizontal, and towards the lower edge of a plane of comb they are often declining. The first combs that a hive forms are the smallest, and much neater than the last, or lowermost. Their sides, or partitions between cell and cell, are much thinner, and the hexagon is much more perfect. The wax is purer, being probably little else but wax, and it is more brittle. The lower combs are considerably larger, and contain much more wax, or perhaps, more properly, more materials; and the cells are at such distances as to allow them to be of a round figure: the wax is softer, and there is something mixed with it. I have observed that the cells are not all of equal size, some being a degree larger than the others; and that the small are the first formed, and of course at the upper part, where the bees begin, and the larger are nearer the lower part of the comb, or last made: however, in hives of particular construction, where the bees may begin to work at one end, and can work both down, and towards the other end, we often find the larger cells both on the lower part of the combs, and also at the opposite end. These are formed for the males to be bred in; and in the hornets and wasps combs, there are larger cells for the queens to be bred in: these are also formed in the lower tier, and the last formed. The first comb made in a hive, is all of one colour, viz. almost white; but it is not so white towards the end of the season, having then more of a yellow cast. Of the Royal Cell. There is a cell, which is called the Royal Cell, often three or four of them, sometimes more; I have seen eleven, and even thirteen in the same hive; commonly they are placed on the edge of one or more of the combs, but often on the side of a comb; however, not in the centre, along with the other cells, like a large one placed among the others, but often against the mouths of the cells, and projecting out beyond the common surface of the comb; but most of them are formed from the edge of the comb, which terminates in one of these cells. The royal cell is much wider than the others, but seldom so deep: its mouth is round, and appears to be the largest half of an oval in depth, and is declining downwards, instead of being horizontal, or lateral. The materials of which it is composed are softer than common wax, rather like the last mentioned, or those of which the lower edge of the plate of comb is made, or with which the bees cover the chrysalis: they have very little wax in their composition, not one third, the rest I conceive to be farina. This is supposed to be the cell in which the queen is bred, but I have reason to believe that this is only imagination: for, first, it is too large, and, moreover, seldom so deep as the large cells in which the males are bred; whereas, if proportioned to the length of the queen, it ought to be deeper, for length of body is her greatest difference. In the second place, its mouth is placed downward; and in the third place, it is never lined with the silken covering of the chrysalis, similar to the cells of the males and labourers; nor do we find excrement at the bottom of it. The number of these cells is very different, in different hives. I think I have seen hives without any, and I have seen them with eleven or twelve, sometimes more. I have examined them at all times through the summer, but never found any alteration in them. The comb seems at first to be formed for propagation, and the reception of honey to be only a secondary use; for if the bees lose their queen, they make no combs; and the wasp, hornet, &c. make combs, although they collect no honey; and the humble bee collects honey, and deposits it in cells she never made. I shall not consider the bee as an excellent mathematician, capable of making exact forms, and having reasoned upon the best shape of the cell for capacity, so that the greatest number might be put into the smallest space (for the hornet and the wasp are much more correct, although not seemingly under the same necessity, as they collect nothing to occupy their cells); because, although the bee is pretty perfect in these respects, yet it is very incorrect in others, in the formation of the comb: nor shall I consider these animals as forming comb of certain shape and size, from mere mechanical necessity, as from working round themselves; for such a mould would not form cells of different sizes, much less could wasps be guided by the same principle, as their cells are of very different sizes, and the first by much too small for the queen wasp to have worked round herself: but I shall consider the whole as an instinctive principle, in which the animal has no power of variation, or choice, but such as arises from what may be called external necessity. The cell has in common six sides, but this is most correct in those first formed; and their bottom is commonly composed of those sides, or planes, two of the sides making one; and they generally fall in between the bottoms of three cells of the opposite side; but this is not regular, it is only to be found where there is no external interruption. I have already observed, that the last formed cells in the season are not so well made: that their partitions are thicker, and more of a yellow colour: this arises, I imagine, from the wax being less pure, having more alloy in it; and therefore, not being so strong, more of it is required. The bees would appear to reserve many of their cells for honey, and those are mostly at the upper part. In old hives, of several years standing, I have found the upper part of the comb free from the consequences of having bred, such as the silk lining, and the excrement of the maggots at the bottom; while the lower part, for probably more than one half of the plane of cells, shewed strong marks of having contained many broods of young bees. In such the lining of silk is thick at the sides, composed of many laminae; and in many, the bottom is half filled up with excrement; and I observed at such parts, the comb was thickest at its mouth, which inclines me to think, that when a cell becomes shallow, by the bottom being in some degree filled up, the bees then add to its mouth. Such also they seem to reserve principally for the bee-bread; so that to lay up a greater store of honey is an object to them. Of the Laying of Eggs. As soon as a few combs are formed, the female bee begins laying of eggs. As far as I have been able to observe, the queen is the only bee that propagates, although it is asserted that the labourers do. Her first eggs in the season are those which produce labourers; then the males, and probably the queen; this is the progress in the wasp, hornet, humble bee, &c. However, it is asserted by Riem, that when a hive is deprived of a queen, labourers lay eggs; also, that at this time, some honey and farina are brought in, as store for a wet day. The eggs are laid at the bottom of the cell, and we find them there before the cells are half completed, so that propagation begins early and goes on along with the formation of the other cells. The egg is attached at one end to the bottom of the cell, sometimes standing perpendicularly, often obliquely; it has a glutinous, or slimy covering, which makes it stick to any thing it touches. It would appear that there was a period or periods for laying eggs; for I have observed in a new swarm, that the great business of laying eggs did not last above a fortnight; although the hive was not half filled with comb, it began to slacken. Probably that end of the egg which is first protruded, is that which sticks to the bottom of the cell: and probably the tail of the maggot is formed at that end: when they move the egg, how they make it stick again, I do not know. I have just observed, that they often move the egg out of a cell, to some other, we may suppose; why they do this, I cannot say; whether it is because we have been exposing this part, is not easily determined. In those new formed combs, as also in many not half finished, we find the substance called bee-bread, and some of it is covered over with wax; which will be considered further. By the time they have worked above half way down the hive, with the comb, they are beginning to form the larger cells, and by this time the first broods are hatched, which were small, or labourers; and now they begin to breed males, and probably a queen, for a new swarm; because the males are now bred to impregnate the young queen for the present summer, as also for the next year. This progress in breeding is the same with that of the wasp, hornet, and humble bee.* Although this account is commonly allowed, yet writers on this subject have supposed another mode of producing a queen, when the hive is in possession of maggots, and deprived of their queen. What may be called the complete process of the egg, namely, from the time of laying to the birth of the bee, (that is, the time of hatching,) the life of the maggot, and the life of the chrysalis, is, I believe, shorter than in most insects. It is not easy to * Reaumur on Bees, says, that the drone eggs, when laid in small cells, produce drones: and Wilhelmi says, that it is the labourers only that lay drone eggs. Mr. Riem says, that queens are never reared in any but royal cells, although males sometimes in common cells; and workers in old queen cells, but never in those recently made. MDCCXCII. fix the time when the eggs hatch: I have been led to imagine it was in five days. When they hatch, we find the young maggot lying coiled up in the bottom of the cell, in some degree surrounded with a transparent fluid. In many of the cells, where the eggs have just hatched, we find the skin standing in its place, either not yet removed, or not pressed down by the maggot. There is now an additional employment for the labourers, namely, the feeding and nursing the young maggots. We may suppose the queen has nothing to do with this, as there are at all times labourers enough in the hive for such purposes, especially too, as she never does bring the materials, as every other of the tribe is obliged to do at first; therefore she seems to be a queen by hereditary, or rather, by natural right, while the humble bee, wasp, hornet, &c. seem rather to work themselves into royalty, or mistresses of the community. The bees are readily detected feeding the young maggot; and indeed a young maggot might easily be brought up, by any person who would be attentive to feed it. They open their two lateral pincers to receive the food, and swallow it. As they grow, they cast their coats, or cuticles; but how often they throw their coats, while in the maggot state, I do not know. I observed that they often removed their eggs; I also find they very often shift the maggot into another cell, even when very large. The maggots grow larger and larger till they nearly fill the cell; and by this time they require no more food, and are ready to be inclosed for the chrysalis state: how this period is discovered I do not know, for in every other insect, as far as I am acquainted, it is an operation of the maggot, or caterpillar itself; but in the common bee, it is an operation of the perfect animal; probably it arises from the maggot refusing food. The time between their being hatched and their being inclosed is, I believe, four days; at least, from repeated observations, it comes nearly to that time: when ready for the chrysalis state, the bees cover over the mouth of the cell, with a substance of a light brown colour, much in the same manner that they cover the honey, excepting that, in the present instance, the covering is convex externally, and appears not to be entirely wax, but a mixture of wax and farina. The maggot is now perfectly inclosed, and it begins to line the cell and covering of the mouth above mentioned, with a silk it spins out similar to the silk-worm, and which makes a kind of pod for the chrysalis. Bonnet observed, that, in one instance, the cell was too short for the chrysalis, and it broke its covering, and formed its pod higher, or more convex than common: this I can conceive possible; we often see it in the wasp. Having completed this lining, they cast off, or rather shove off, from the head backwards, the last maggot coat, which is deposited at the bottom of the cell, and then they become chrysalises. Of the Food of the Maggot, or what is commonly called Bee-Bread. One would naturally suppose, that the food of the maggot bee should be honey, both because it is the food of the old ones, and it is what they appear principally to collect for themselves; however, the circumstance of honey being food for the old ones is no argument, because very few young animals live on the same food with the old, and therefore it is probable the maggot bee does not live upon honey; and if we reason from analogy, we shall be led to suppose the bee-bread to be the food of the maggot. It is the food of the maggot of the humble bee, who feeds upon honey, and even lays up a store of honey for a wet day, yet does not feed the young with it. It is the food of the maggot of a black bee, and also of several others of the solitary kind, who also feed upon honey; and wasps, &c. who do not bring in such materials, do not feed themselves upon honey. We cannot suppose, that the bee-bread is for the food of the old bees, when we see them collecting it in the months of June, July, &c. at which time they have honey in great plenty. This substance is as common to a hive as any part belonging to the economy of bees. Before they have formed five or six square inches of comb in a young hive, we shall find eggs, honey, and bee-bread; and at whatever time of the year we kill a hive, we shall find this substance; and if a hive is short of honey, and dies in the winter, we find no honey, but all the bee-bread, which was laid up in store for the maggots in the spring. They take great care of it, for it is often covered over with wax, as the honey, and I believe more especially in the winter; probably with a view to preserve it till wanted. In April I have found some of the cells full, others only half full. If we slit down a cell filled with this substance, we shall commonly find it composed of layers of different colours; some a deep orange, others a pale brown. In glass hives, we often find that the glass makes one side of the cell, and frequently in such we shall see at once the different strata above mentioned. This is the substance which they bring in on their legs, and consists of the farina of plants. It is not the farina of every plant that the bee collects, at least they are found gathering it from some with great industry, while we never find them on others: St. John's wort is a favourite plant, but that comes late. The flower of the gourd, cucumber, &c. they seem to be fond of. What they do collect must be the very loose stuff, just ready to be blown off to impregnate the female part of the flower; and to shew that this is the case, we find bees impregnate flowers that have not the male part. It is in common of a yellow colour, but that of very different shades, often of an orange; and when we see bees collecting it on bushes that have a great many flowers, so as to furnish a complete load, it is then of the colour of the farina of that bush. It is curious to see them deposite this substance in the cell. On viewing the hives, we often see bees with this substance on their legs, moving along on the combs, as if looking out for the cell to deposite it in. They will often walk over a cell that has some deposited in it, but shall leave that, and try another, and so on till they fix; which made me conceive that each bee had its own cell. When they come to the intended cell, they put their two hind legs into it, with the two fore legs and the trunk out on the mouth of the neighbouring cell, and then the tail, or belly, is thrust down into the intended cell; they then bring the leg under the belly, and turning the point of the tail to the outside of the leg, where the farina is, they shove it off by the point of the tail. When it is thus shoved off both legs, the bee leaves it, and the two pieces of farina may be seen lying at the bottom of the cell: another bee comes almost immediately, and creeping into the cell, continues about five minutes, kneading and working it down into the bottom, or spreads it over what was deposited there before, leaving it a smooth surface. It is of a consistency like paste; burns slightly, and gives a kind of unusual smell, probably from having been mixed with animal juice in the act of kneading it down; for when brought in, it is rather a powder than a paste. That it is the food of the maggot is proved by examining the animal's stomach; for when we kill a maggot full grown, we find its stomach full of a similar substance, only softer, as if mixed with a fluid, but we never find honey in the stomach; therefore we are to suppose it is collected as food for the maggot, as much as honey is for the old bee. Mr. Schirach imagines, that the semen of the male is the food of the maggot; but the food of the male and the queen maggot has been supposed to be different from that of the labourers. Reaumur says, the food of the queen maggot is different in taste from that of the common ones. How he knew this, who was unacquainted with the food of the others, I cannot conceive. Of the Excrement of the Maggot. They have very little excrement, but what they do discharge is deposited at the bottom of the cell; and what at first will appear rather extraordinary, it is never cleared away by the bees, but allowed to dry along with the maggot coats; and both fresh eggs and honey are deposited in these cells, so circumstanced, every future year; so that in time the cells become nearly half full. Of the Chrysalis State. In this state they are forming themselves for a new life: they are either entirely new built, or wonderfully changed, for there is not the smallest vestige of the old form remaining; yet it must be the same materials, for now nothing is taken in. How far this change is only the old parts new modelled, or gradually altering their form, is not easily determined. To bring about the change, many parts must be removed, out of which the new ones are probably formed. As bees are not different in this state from the common flying insects in general, I shall not pursue the subject of their changes further; although it makes a very material part in the natural history of insects. When the chrysalis is formed into the complete bee, it then destroys the covering of its cell, and comes forth. The time it continues in this state is easier ascertained than either in that of the egg, or the maggot; for the bees cannot move the chrysalis, as they do the two others. In one instance it was thirteen days and twelve hours exactly; so that an egg in hatching being five days, the age of the maggot being four days, and the chrysalis continuing thirteen and a half, the whole makes twenty-two days and a half: but how far this is accurate, I will not pretend to say. I found that the chrysalis of a male was fourteen days, but this was probably accidental. When they first come out, they are of a greyish colour, but soon turn brown. When the swarm of which I have hitherto been giving the history has come off early, and is a large one, more especially if it was put into too small a hive, it often breeds too many for the hive to keep through the winter; and in such case a new swarm is thrown off, which, however, is commonly not a large one, and generally has too little time to complete its comb, and store it with honey sufficient to preserve them through the winter. This is similar to the second or third swarm of the old hives. Of the Seasons, when the different Operations of Bees take place. I have already observed, that the new colony immediately sets about the increase of their numbers, and every thing relating to it. They had their apartments to build, both for the purpose of breeding, and as a storehouse for provisions for the winter. When the season for laying eggs is over, then is the season for collecting honey; therefore, when the last chrysalis for the season comes forth, its cell is immediately filled with honey, and as soon as a cell is full, it is covered over with pure wax, and is to be considered as store for the winter. This covering answers two very essential purposes: one is to keep it from spilling, or daubing the bees: the other to prevent its evaporation, by which means it is kept fluid in such a warmth. They are also employed in laying up a store of bee-bread for the young maggots in the spring, for they begin to bring forth much earlier than probably any other insect, because they retain a summer heat, and store up food for the young. In the month of August we may suppose the queen, or queens, are impregnated by the males; and as the males do not provide for themselves, they become burdensome to the workers, and are therefore teased to death much sooner than they otherwise would die; and when the bees set about this business, of providing their winter store, every operation is over, except the collecting of honey and bee-bread. At this time it would seem as if the males were conscious of their danger, for they do not rest on the mouth of the hive in either going out or coming in, but hurry either in, or out: however they are commonly attacked by one, two, or three at a time: they seem to make no resistance, only getting away as fast as possible. The labourers do not sting them, only pinch them, and pull them about as if to wear them out; but I suspect it may be called as much a natural, as a violent death. The whole of the males are now destroyed, and indeed it would have been useless to have saved any to impregnate the queen in the spring. That there may be many more than may be wanted, I can easily believe, for this we see throughout nature; but she always times her operations well, although there may be supernumeraries. When the young are wholly come forth, and either the cells entirely filled, or no more honey to be collected, then is the time, or season, for remaining in their hives for the winter. Although I have now completed a hive, and no operations are going on in the winter months, yet the history of this hive is imperfect till it sends forth a new swarm. As the common bee is very susceptible of cold, we find as soon as the cold weather sets in, they become very quiet, or still, and remain so throughout the winter, living on the produce of the summer and autumn; and indeed a cold day in the summer is sufficient to keep them at home, more so than a shower in a warm day: and if the hive is thin, and much exposed, they will hardly move in it, but get as close together as the comb will let them, into a cluster. In this manner they appear to live through the winter: however, in a fine day, they become very lively and active, going abroad, and appearing to enjoy it, at which time they get rid of their excrement; for I fancy they seldom throw out their excrement when in the MDCCXCII. hive. To prove this, I confined some bees in a small hive; and fed them with honey for some days; and the moment I let them out, they flew, and threw out their excrement in large quantities; and therefore, in the winter, I presume, they retain the contents of their bowels for a considerable time: indeed, when we consider their confinement in the winter, and that they have no place to deposite their excrement, we can hardly account for the whole of this operation in them. Their excrement is of a yellow colour, and according to their confinement it is found higher and higher up in the intestine, almost as high as the crop. Their life at this season of the year is more uniform, and may be termed simple existence, till the warm weather arrives again. As they now subsist on their summer's industry, they would seem to feed in proportion to the coldness of the season; for from experiment, I found the hive grow lighter in a cold week, than it did in a warmer, which led to further experiments. I first made an experiment upon a bee hive, to ascertain the quantity of honey lost through the winter. The hive was put into the scale November the 3d, 1776. | Date | Loss (oz. drams) | |------------|------------------| | November 10th | 2 7 | | 17th | 4 2½ | | 24th | 3 7½ | | December 1st | 8 2 | | 8th | 2 1 | | 15th | 5 2 | | 22d | 4 3 | | 29th | 5 4 | | 1777. January 1st | 2 5 | Mr. Hunter's Observations on Bees. | Date | Loss (oz. drams) | |----------|------------------| | January 12th | 5 2 | | 19th | 3 4 | | 26th | 3 1\(\frac{1}{2}\) | | February 2d | 5 0 | | 9th | 7 0 | The whole 72 1\(\frac{1}{2}\) Although an indolent state is very much the condition of bees through the winter, yet progress is making in the queen towards a summer's increase. The eggs in the oviducts are beginning to swell, and, I believe, in the month of March she is ready to lay them, for the young bees are to swarm in June; which constitutes the queen bee to be the earliest breeder of any insect we know. In consequence of this, the labourers become sooner employed than any other of this tribe of insects. This both queen and labourers are enabled to accomplish, from living in society through the winter; and it becomes necessary in them, as they have their colony to form early in the summer, which is to provide for itself for the winter following. All this requires the process to be carried forward earlier than by any other insect, for these are only to have young which are to take care of themselves through the summer, not being under the necessity of providing for the winter. In the month of April, I found in the cells, young bees, in all stages, from the egg to the chrysalis state; some of which were changed in their colour, therefore, were nearly arrived at the fly state, and probably some might have flown. As this season is too early for collecting the provision of the maggot abroad, the store of farina comes now into use; but as soon as flowers begin to blow, the bees gather the fresh, although they have farina in store, giving the fresh the preference. Of the Queen. The queen bee, as she is termed, has excited more curiosity than all the others, although much more belongs to the labourers. From the number of these, and from their exposing themselves, they have their history much better made out: but as there is only one queen, and she scarcely ever seen, it being only the effects of her labour we can come at, an opportunity has been given to the ingenuity of conjecture, and more has been said than can well be proved. She is allowed to be bred in the common way, only that there is a peculiar cell for her in her first stage; and Reaumur says, "her food is different when in the maggot state;" but as there is probably but one queen, that the whole might not depend on one life, it is asserted that the labourers have a power of forming a common maggot into a queen. If authors had given us this as an opinion only, we might have passed it over as improbable, but they have endeavoured to prove it by experiments, which require to be examined: and for that purpose, I shall give what they say on that head, with my remarks upon it. Abstracts from Mr. Schirach. The following experiments were made to ascertain the origin of the queen bee:—"In twelve wooden boxes were placed "twelve pieces of comb, four inches square, each containing both eggs and maggots, so suspended that the bees could come round every part of the comb: in each box was shut up a handful of working bees. Knowing that when bees are forming a queen, they should be confined,* the boxes were kept shut for two days. When examined at the end of that period (six boxes only were opened), in all of them royal cells were begun, one, two, or three, in each; all of these containing a maggot four days old. In four days, the other six boxes were opened, and royal cells found in each, containing maggots five days old, surrounded by a large provision of jelly; and one of these maggots, examined in the microscope, in every respect resembled a working bee. This experiment was repeated, and the maggots selected to be made queens were three days old; and in seventeen days there were found in the twelve boxes fifteen lively, handsome queens.† These experiments were made in May, and the bees were allowed to work great part of the summer: the bees were examined one by one, but no drone could be discovered, and yet the queens were impregnated, and laid their eggs.‡ The above experiment was repeated with pieces of comb, * How he came to know this, I cannot conceive, for nothing a priori could give such information. † Now this account is not only improbable, but it does not tally with itself. First, it is not probable that a handful of bees should, or would, set about making two, three, or four queens, when we do not find that number in a large hive: and secondly, it seems inconsistent that only fifteen should be formed out of twelve parcels, when some of the former parcels had four young queens. ‡ Here is a wonder of another kind: queens laying eggs, which (we must suppose Mr. Schirach meant we should believe) they hatched, without the influence of the male. "containing eggs only, in six boxes, but no preparations were made towards producing a queen.* "The experiment of producing a queen bee from a maggot was repeated every month of the year, even in November.† "A maggot three days old was procured from a friend, in- closed in an ordinary cell, and shut up with a piece of comb, containing eggs and maggots. That three days old was formed into a queen, and all the other maggots and eggs were destroyed.‡ "In above a hundred experiments a queen has been formed from maggots three days old." § Wilhelmi observes, that a queen cell, which is made while the bees are shut up, is formed by breaking down three com- mon cells into one, when the maggot is placed in the centre, after which the sides are repaired. A young queen lately hatched was put into a hive, which had been previously ascertained to contain no drones, and whose queen was removed; and yet the young queen laid eggs.|| In repeating Mr. Schirach's experiment, he shut up four * Why eggs, which we must conceive hatched, and produced maggots, did not form queens, one cannot imagine. † In which month, as bees never swarm, there could be no occasion for mothers, or supernumerary queens, and still each experiment produced a handsome queen. This is as singular an observation as any. In this country, and in all similar ones, bees hardly breed after July, and by the beginning of September there is hardly a chrysalis to be seen; yet these bred till November, and even laid eggs. ‡ Why did the bees destroy them in this experiment, and not in others? § The working bees, from the above experiments, are considered as all females, although the ovaria are too small for examination. It would appear that a maggot three days old was of the best age for this experi- ment, yet one should have conceived that a maggot two days old would soon be fit. || There is no mystery in this; but did they hatch? pieces of comb, with one maggot in each; after two days the maggots were all dead, and the bees had desisted from labour.* A piece of comb, from which all the eggs and maggots had been removed, was shut up with some honey, and a certain number of workers; in a short time they became very busy, and upon the evening of the second day 300 eggs were found in the cells.† He repeated this experiment with the same result, and the bees were left to themselves: they placed queen maggots in the queen cells, newly constructed, and others in male cells: the rest were left undisturbed. He again took two pieces of comb, which contained neither eggs nor maggots, and shut them up with a certain number of workers, and carried the box into a stove: next evening, one of the pieces of comb contained several eggs, and the beginning of a royal cell, that was empty. Besides the short observations contained in the notes, I beg leave to observe, that I have my doubts respecting the whole of these experiments, from several circumstances which occurred in mine. The three following facts appear much against their probability: first, a summer's evening in this country is commonly too cold for so small a parcel of bees to be lively, so as to set about new operations; they get so benumbed, that they hardly recover in the day, and I should suspect that where these experiments were made (and indeed some are said to have been tried in this country), it is also too cold: secondly, * This is the most probable event in the whole experiments. † This would show that labourers can be changed into queens at will, and that neither they nor their eggs require to be impregnated; if this was the case, there would be no occasion for all the push in making a queen or a male. if the weather should happen to be so warm as to prevent this effect, then they are so restless, that they commonly destroy themselves, or wear themselves out; at least, after a few days confinement we find them mostly dead: and thirdly, the account given of the formation of a royal cell, without mentioning the above inconvenience, which is natural to the experiment, makes me suspect the whole to be fabricated. To obviate the first objection, which I found from experiment to prevent any success that otherwise might arise, I put my parcel of bees, with their comb, in which were eggs, as also maggots, and in some of the trials there were chrysalises,* into a warmer place, such as a glass frame, over tan, the surface of which was covered with mould, to prevent the rising of unwholesome air: but from knowing that the maggot was fed with bee-bread, or farina, I took care to introduce a cell or two with this substance, as also the flowers of plants that produce a great deal of it, likewise some honey for the old ones. In this state my bees were preserved from the cold, as also provided with necessaries; but after being confined several days, upon opening the door of the hive, what were alive came to the door, walked and flew about, but gradually left it, and on examining the combs, &c. I found the maggots dead, and nothing like any operation going on. * I chose to have some chrysalises, for I supposed that if my bees died, or flew away, the chrysalises when they came out, which would happen in a few days, not knowing where to go, might stay and take care of the maggots that might be hatched from the eggs; but, to my surprise, I found that neither the eggs hatched, nor did the chrysalises come forth; all died: from which I began to suspect that the presence of the bees was necessary for both. The queen, the mother of all, in whatever way produced, is a true female, and different from both the labourers and the male. She is not so large in the trunk as the male, and appears to be rather larger in every part than the labourers. The scales on the under surface of the belly of the labourers are not uniformly of the same colour, over the whole scale; that part being lighter which is overlapped by the terminating scale above, and the uncovered part being darker: this light part does not terminate in a straight line, but in two curves, making a peak; all which gives the belly a lighter colour in the labouring bees: more especially when it is pulled out or elongated. The tongue of the female is considerably shorter than that of the labouring bee, more like that of the male: however, the tongues of the labourers are not in all of an equal length, but none have it so short as the queen. The size of the belly of the female of such animals varies a little, according to the condition they are in: but the belly of the male and the labourer has but little occasion to change its size, as they are at all times nearly in the same condition with regard to fat, having always plenty of provision: but the true female varies very considerably; she is of a different size and shape in the summer to what she is in the winter; and in the winter she has what may be called her natural size and shape: she is, upon the whole, rather thicker than the labourer; and this thickness is also in the belly, which probably arises from the circumstance of the oviduct being in the winter pretty large, and the reservoir for semen full. The termination of the belly is rather more peaked than in the labourers, the last scale being rather narrower from side to side, and com- ing more to a point at the anus. The scales at this season are more overlapped, which can only be known by drawing them out. In the spring and summer she is more easily distinguished: the belly is not only thicker, but considerably longer than formerly, which arises from the increase of the eggs. We distinguish a queen from the working bee, simply by size, and in some degree by colour; but this last is not so easily ascertained, because the difference in the colour is not so remarkable in the back, and the only view we can commonly get of her is on this part; but when a hive is killed, the best way is to collect all the bees, and spread them on white paper, or put them into water, in a broad, flat-bottomed, shallow, white dish, in which they swim; and by looking at them singly, she may be discovered. As the queen breeds the first year she is produced, and the oviducts never entirely subside, an old queen is probably thicker than a new bred one, unless indeed the oviducts, and the eggs, form in the chrysalis state, as in the silk-worm, which I should suppose they did. The queen is perhaps at the smallest size just as she has done breeding, for as she is to lay eggs by the month of March, she must begin early to fill again; but I believe her oviducts are never emptied, having at all times eggs in them, although but small. She has fat in her belly, similar to the other bees. It is most probable that the queen which goes off with the swarm is a young one, for the males go off with the swarm to impregnate her, as she must be impregnated the same year, because she breeds the same year. The queen has a sting similar to the working bee. Of the Number of Queens in a Hive. I believe a hive, or swarm, has but one queen, at least I have never found more than one in a swarm, or in an old hive in the winter; and probably this is what constitutes a hive; for when there are two queens, it is likely that a division may begin to take place. Supernumerary queens are mentioned by Riem, who asserts he has seen them killed by the labourers, as well as the males. November 18th, 1788, I killed a hive that had not swarmed the summer before, and which was to appearance ready to swarm every day; but when I supposed the season for swarming was over, and it had not swarmed, I began to suspect that the reason why it did not was owing to there being no young queen or queens; and I found only one. This is a kind of presumptive proof that I was right in my conjecture; unless it be supposed, that when they were determined not to swarm, they destroyed every queen except one. In a hive that died, I found no males, and only one queen. This circumstance, that so few queens are bred, must arise from the natural security the queen is in from the mode of their society; for, although there is but one queen in a wasp's, hornet's, and humble bee's nest or hive, yet these breed a great number of queens; the wasp and hornet some hundreds; but not living in society during the winter, they are subject to great destruction, so that probably not one in a hundred lives to breed in the summer. I have said that the queen leaves off laying in the month of July; and now she is to be impregnated by the males before they die. Mr. Riem asserts, he has seen the copulation between the male and the female, but does not say at what season. I should doubt this; but Mr. Schirach supposes the queen impregnated without copulation. I know not whether he means by this that she is not impregnated at all, and supposes, like Mr. Debray, that the eggs are impregnated after they are laid, by a set of small drones, who pass over the cells, and thrust their tails down into the cell, so as to besmear the egg.* Mr. Bonnet does not consider it necessary that the drones should be small for this purpose, for he saw a large drone passing over the cells of a piece of comb, stopping at every one which contained an egg, but at no other, and giving a knock with his tail on the mouth of the cell three times; this he supposed was the mode of impregnating the eggs. The number three has always been a famous number; but it will not do where there are no males, which is the case of a hive in the spring, the time when the queen is most employed in laying eggs; which made him suppose the use of the males was to feed the maggots with their semen. It is probable that the copulation is like that of most other insects. The copulation of the humble bee I have seen: it is similar to the common fly. The sting is extended at the time, and turned up on the back, between the two animals: they are some time in this act. In the hornet it is the same. The circumstances relative to the impregnating the queen not being known, great room has been given for conjecture, which, if authors had presented as conjectures only, it would have shewn their candour; but they have given, what in them were probably conceits, as facts. * Mr. Debray, knowing the drones died in the latter end of summer, or the autumn, was obliged to suppose a small set of males, that lived through the winter, for that purpose. Of the Male Bee. The male bee is considerably larger than the labourers: he is even larger than the queen, although not so long when she is in her full state with eggs: he is considerably thicker than either, but not longer in the same proportion: he does not terminate at the anus in so sharp a point; and the opening between the two last scales of the back and belly is larger, and more under the belly, than in the female. His proboscis is much shorter than that of the labouring bee, which makes me suspect he does not collect his own honey, but takes that which is brought home by the others; especially as we never find the males abroad on flowers, &c. only flying about the hives in hot weather, as if taking an airing; and when we find that the male of the humble bee, which collects its own food, has as long a proboscis, or tongue, as the female, I think it is from all these facts reasonable to suppose, the male of the common bee feeds at home. He has no sting. The males, I believe, are later in being bred than the labouring bee. As they are only produced to go off with a hive, they are not so early brought forth; for in the month of April I killed a hive, in which I found maggots and chrysalises, but did not find any males among the latter: the maggots are too young for such investigation; but about the 20th of May we observed males: they are all very much of the same size. In the month of August, probably about the latter end, we may suppose they impregnate the queen for the next year, and about the latter end of the same month, and beginning of September, they are dying, but seem to be hastened to their end by the labourers. In 1791, as early as the 19th of June, I saw the labourers killing the males of a hive, or rather of a swarm, that had not yet swarmed, but was hanging out; this, however, was out of the common course. They appear to be sensible of their fate, for they hurry in and out of the hive as quick as possible, seemingly with a view to avoid the labourers; and we find them attacked by the labourers, who pinch them with their forceps, and when they are so hurt, and fatigued with attempts to make their escape, as not to be able to fly, they are thrown over on the ground, and left to die. That this is the fate of every male bee is easily ascertained, by examining every bee in the hive when killed for the honey, which is after this season; no male being then found in it. Bonnet supposes them starved to death, as he never saw wounds on them. In the course of a winter I have killed several hives, some as late as April, and in such a way as to preserve every bee, and after examining every one entirely, I never perceived one male of any kind; although it has been asserted there are two sizes of males, and that the small are preserved through the winter to impregnate the queen. Of the Labouring Bee. This class, for we cannot call it either sex, or species, is the largest in number of the whole community: there are thousands of them to one queen, and probably some hundreds to each male, as we shall see by and by. It is to be supposed they are the only bees which construct the whole hive, and that the queen has no other business but to lay the eggs: they are the only bees that bring in materials; the only ones we observe Mr. Hunter's Observations on Bees. busy abroad; and, indeed, the idea of any other is ridiculous, when we consider the disproportion in numbers, as well as the employment of the others, while the working bee has nothing to take off its attention to the business of the family. They are smaller than either the queen or the males: not all of equal size, although the difference is not very great. The queen and the working bees are so much alike, that the latter would seem to be females on a different scale: however, this difference is not so observable in the beginning of winter as in the spring, when the queen is full of eggs. They are all females in construction, having the female parts, which are extremely small, and would be easily overlooked by a person not very well acquainted with the parts in the queen: this has been observed by Mr. Riem; indeed, one might suppose that they were only young queens, and that they became queens after a certain age; but this is not the case. They all have stings, which is another thing that makes them similar to the queen. From their being furnished with an instrument of defence and offence, they are endowed with such powers of mind as to use it, their minds being extremely irritable; so much so, that they make an attack when not meddled with, simply upon suspicion, and when they do attack, they always sting; and yet, from the circumstance of their not being able to disengage the sting, one should suppose they would be more cautious in striking with it. When they attack one another, they seldom use it, only their pincers: yet I saw two bees engaged, and one stung the other in the mouth, or thereabouts, and the sting was drawn from the body to which it belonged, and the one who was stung ran very quickly about with it; but I could not catch that bee, to observe how the sting was situated. As they are the collectors of honey, much more than what is for their own use, either immediately, or in future, their tongue is proportionably fitted for that purpose: it is considerably longer than that of either the queen or the male, which fits them to take up the honey from the hollow parts of flowers, of considerable depth. The mechanism is very curious, as will be explained further on. The number of labourers in a hive varies very considerably. In one hive that I killed, there were - - 3338 In another - - - - 4472 In one that died, there were - - 2432 That I might guess at the number of bees from a given bulk, I counted what number an alehouse pint held, when wet, and found it contained - - 2160 Therefore, as some swarms will fill two quarts, such must consist of near - - - - 9000 Of the Parts concerned in the Nourishment of the Bee. Animals who only swallow food for themselves, or whose alimentary organs are fitted wholly for their own nourishment, have them adapted to that use only; but in many, these organs are common for more purposes, as in the pigeon, and likewise in the bee. In this last, some of the parts are used as a temporary reservoir, holding both that which is for the immediate nourishment of the animal, and also that which is to be preserved for a future day, in the cells formerly described; this last portion is therefore thrown up again, or regurgitated. As it is the labourers alone in the common bee that are so employed, we might conceive this reservoir would belong only to them; but both the queen and males, both in the common and humble bee, have it, as also, I believe, every one of the bee tribe. As the bee is a remarkable instance of regurgitation, it is necessary the structure of the parts concerned in this operation, and which are also connected with digestion, should be well considered. Ruminating animals may be reckoned regurgitating animals, but in them it is for the purpose of digestion entirely in themselves. But many birds may be called regurgitating animals, and in them it is for the purpose of feeding their young. Crows fill their fauces, making a kind of craw, out of which they throw back the food when they feed their young: but the most remarkable is the dove tribe, who first fill their craw, and then throw it up into the beak of their young*. The bee has this power to a remarkable degree, not, however, for the purpose of feeding the young, but it is the mode of depositing their store, when brought home. In none of the above-mentioned regurgitating animals are the reservoirs containing the food, the immediate organ of digestion; nor does the reservoir for the honey in the bee appear to be its stomach. The tongue of the bee is the first of the alimentary organs to be considered: it is of a peculiar structure, and is probably the largest tongue of any animal we know, for its size. It may be said to consist of three parts respecting its length, having three articulations. One, its articulation with the head, which is in some measure similar to our larynx. Then comes the body of the tongue, which is composed of two parts; one, a kind of base, on which the other, or * Vide Observations on certain parts of the animal economy, p. 191. true tongue, is articulated. This first part is principally a horny substance, in which there is a groove, and it is articulated with the first, or larynx; on the end of this is fixed the true tongue, with its different parts. These two parts of the tongue are as it were inclosed laterally, by two horny scales, one on each side, which are concave on that side next to the tongue; one edge is thicker than the other, and they do not extend so far as the other parts. Each of these scales is composed of two parts, or scales, respecting its length, one articulated with the other: the first of those scales is articulated with the common base, or larynx, at the articulation of the first part of the tongue, and incloses laterally the second part of the tongue, coming as far forwards as the third articulation: on the end of this is articulated the second scale, which continues the hollow groove that incloses the tongue laterally; this terminates in a point. These scales have some hairs on their edge. On the termination of the second part, is placed the true tongue, having two lateral portions or processes, on each side, one within the other: the external is the largest, and is somewhat similar to the before-mentioned scales. This is composed of four parts, or rather of one large part, on which three smaller are articulated, having motion on themselves. The first, on which the others stand, is articulated at the edges of the tongue, on the basis, or termination of the last described part of the tongue: this has hairs on its edge. A little further forwards on the edges of the tongue are two small thin processes, so small as hardly to be seen with the naked eye. The middle part of all, of which these lateral parts are only appendages, is the true tongue. It is something longer than any of the before-mentioned lateral portions; and is not horny, as the other parts are, but what may be called fleshy, being soft and pliable. It is composed of short sections, which probably are so many short muscles, as in fish; for they are capable of moving it in all directions. The tongue itself is extremely villous, having some very long villi at the point, which act, I conceive, somewhat like capillary tubes. This whole apparatus can be folded up, into a very small compass, under the head and neck. The larynx falls back into the neck, which brings the extreme end of the first portion of the tongue within the upper lip, or behind the two teeth; then the whole of the second part, which consists of five parts, is bent down upon and under this first part, and the two last scales are also bent down over the whole; so that the true tongue is inclosed laterally by the two second horny scales, and over the whole lie the two first. The œsophagus, in all of this tribe of insects, begins just at the root of the tongue, as in other animals, covered anteriorly by a horny scale, which terminates the head, and which may be called the upper lip, or the roof of the mouth. It passes down through the neck and thorax, and when got into the abdomen, it immediately dilates into a fine transparent bag, which is the immediate receiver of whatever is swallowed. From this the food (whatever it be) is either carried further on into the stomach, to be digested, or is regurgitated for other purposes. To ascertain this in some degree, in living bees, I caught them going out early in the morning, and found this bag quite empty: some time after I caught others returning home, and found the bag quite full of honey, and some of it had got into the stomach. Now I suppose that which was in the craw, was for the purpose of regurgitation; and as probably they had fasted during the night, part had gone on further for digestion. Whatever time the contents of this reservoir may be retained, we never find them altered, so as to give the idea of digestion having taken place: it is pure honey. From this bag the contents can be moved either way; either downwards to the stomach, for the immediate use of the animal itself; or back again, to be thrown out as store for future aliment. The stomach arises from the lower end, and a little on the right side, of this bag. It does not gradually contract into a stomach, nor is the outlet a passage directly out, but in the centre of a projection which enters some way into the reservoir, being rather an inverted pylorus, thickest at its most projecting part, with a very small opening in the centre, of a peculiar construction. This inward projecting part is easily seen through the coats of the reservoir, especially if full of honey. The stomach begins immediately on the outside of the reservoir, and the same part which projects into the reservoir, is continued some way into the stomach, but appears to have no particular construction at this end; and therefore it is only fitted to prevent regurgitation into the reservoir, as such would spoil the honey. This construction of parts is well adapted for the purpose; for the end projecting into the reservoir, prevents any honey from getting into the stomach, because it acts there as a valve; therefore whatever is taken in, must be by an action of this vascular part. The stomach has a good deal the appearance of a gut, especially as it seems to come out from a bag. It passes almost directly downwards in the middle of the abdomen. Its inner surface is very much increased, by having either circular valves, somewhat like the *valvulae conniventes* in the human *jejunum*, or spiral folds, as in the intestine of the shark, &c.; these may be seen through the external coats. In this part the food undergoes the change. Where the stomach terminates, is not exactly to be ascertained; but it soon begins to throw itself into convolutions, and becomes smaller. The intestine makes two or three twists upon itself, in which part it is enveloped in the ducts, constituting the liver, and probably the pancreas, and at last passes on straight to the termination of the abdomen. Here it is capable of becoming very large, to serve upon occasion as a reservoir, containing a large quantity of excrement: it then contracts a little, and opens under the posterior edge of the last scale of the back, above the sting in the female and labourers, and the penis in the male. *Of the Senses of Bees.* Bees certainly have the five senses. Sight none can doubt. Feeling they also have; and there is every reason for supposing they have likewise taste, smell, and hearing. Taste we cannot doubt: but of smell we may not have such proofs: yet, from observation, I think they give strong signs of smell. When bees are hungry, as a young swarm in wet weather, and are in a glass hive, so that they can be examined, if we put some honey into the bottom, it will immediately breed a commotion; they all seem to be upon the scent: even if they are weak, and hardly able to crawl, they will throw out their proboscis as far as possible to get to it, although the light is very faint. This last appears to arise more from smell than seeing. If some bees are let loose in a bee hive, and do not know from which house they came, they will take their stand upon the outside of some hive, or hives; especially when the evening is coming on: whether this arises from the smell of the hives, or sound, I can hardly judge. Of the Voice of Bees. Bees may be said to have a voice. They are certainly capable of forming several sounds. They give a sound when flying, which they can vary according to circumstances. One accustomed to bees, can immediately tell when a bee makes an attack, by the sound. These are probably made by the wings. They may be seen standing at the door of their hive, with the belly rather raised, and moving their wings, making a noise. But they produce a noise independent of their wings; for if a bee is smeared all over with honey, so as to make the wings stick together, it will be found to make a noise, which is shrill and peevish. To ascertain this further, I held a bee by the legs, with a pair of pincers; and observed it then made the peevish noise, although the wings were perfectly still: I then cut the wings off, and found it made the same noise. I examined it in water, but it then did not produce the noise, till it was very much teased, and then it made the same kind of noise; and I could observe the water, or rather the surface of contact of the water with the air at the mouth of an air-hole at the root of the wing, vibrating. I have observed that they, or some of them, make a noise the evenings before they swarm, which is a kind of ring, or sound of a small trumpet: by comparing it with the notes of the piano forte, it seemed to be the same with the lower A of the treble. Of the Female Parts. I may here observe, that insects differ from most of the classes of animals above them, in having their eggs formed in the ducts along which they pass; not in a cluster on the back, as in some fish (for instance all of the ray kind, or what are called the amphibia), in the bird, and as is supposed in the quadruped; from thence the eggs are taken up, and by the ducts are carried along to their places of destination. Of the Oviducts. The female of the common bee, similar to all the females of the bee tribe, has six oviducts on each side, beginning by very small, and almost imperceptible threads, as high as the chest: they then form one cord coiled up, or pass very serpentine, and become larger and larger as they approach the anus, owing to the gradual increased size of the eggs in them, which are now more distinct, and give the duct a sort of interrupted appearance, toward the lower end. The six ducts, when full of eggs, make a kind of quadrangle; then all unite into one duct, which enters the duct common to it and the oviducts of the other side. The ducts common to the six oviducts on each side, are extremely tender; so much so, that it is dif- ficult to save them. The duct common to those on both sides may be called the vagina, and it is continued to the anus, or termination of the belly. Of the Male Parts. The male parts of generation, in the common bee, are much larger than in the humble bee. This we suppose necessary, considering the vast number of eggs the common bee lays, more than the humble bee does. The external parts of generation of the male bee, are rather more under the belly, than in the others of this tribe; not so much at the termination of the belly; and they are rather more exposed, the two last scales, especially the under one, not projecting so much: the two holders are not so projecting beyond their base, nor are they so hooked, or sharp, as in the humble bee; hardly deserving the name of holders. From the external parts, passes up into the abdomen a pretty large sheath, whose termination incloses the glans penis. It is a bulbous part, having a dark coloured horny part upon it, which has two processes near its opening externally, one on each side, of a yellow colour: it has another process, which is white, and seems to be a gland. It can be made to pass along this sheath, or prepuce, and appear externally: I have been able, with a pair of forceps, to invert the sheath, beginning externally at the mouth, and pulling out a little at a time, by shifting my hold, till the glans has appeared externally. The internal parts are the testicles, with their appendages. The testicles are two small oblong bodies, lying near the back, having a vast number of air-vessels passing into them, and ramifying upon them. They are of a pale yellowish colour. From their lower ends pass down ducts, which may be called *vasa deferentia*, and which enter two bags: these two bags, into which the *vasa deferentia* enter, are probably reservoirs for the semen. From the union of these two bags passes out a duct, which runs towards the termination of the abdomen, and ends in the penis. These three parts, namely, testicles with their ducts, the two bags, and the duct arising from them, which I have termed urethra, are all folded on each other, so as to appear as one body. In the introduction to this account of bees I observed, that several things in their economy might escape us if we considered them alone, but might be made out in other insects: an instance of this occurs in the impregnation of the female bee. The death of the males in the month of August, so that not one is left, and yet the queen to breed in the month of March, must puzzle any one not acquainted with the mode of impregnation of the females of most insects. Insects, respecting the males, are of two kinds: one, where the male lives through the winter, as well as the female; and the other, where every male of that species dies before the winter comes on; among which may be considered, as a third, those where both male and female die the same year. Of the first, I shall only give the common fly as an instance; of the second, I shall just mention all of the bee tribe; and the third may be illustrated in the silk-worm. The mode of impregnation in the first, is its being continued uninterruptedly through the whole period of laying eggs; while in the second, the copulation is in store; and, in the third the female lays up, by MDCCXCII. the copulation, a store of semen, although the male is alive: of this I shall now give an explanation in the silk-moth, which may be applied to the bee, and many other insects. In dissecting the female parts in the silk-moth, I discovered a bag lying on what may be called the vagina, or common oviduct, whose mouth, or opening, was external, but it had a canal of communication between it and the common oviduct. In dissecting these parts before copulation, I found this bag empty, and when I dissected them after, I found it full. Suspecting this to contain the semen of the male, I immediately conceived the following experiment: I opened the female as soon as the male had united to her, and found the penis in the opening of this bag, and by opening the duct where the penis lay, I observed the semen lying on the end of the penis. In another, I observed the bag to fill in the time of copulation: and in a pair that died in the act, I found the penis in this passage. When we consider the impregnation of the egg in the silk-worm, we may observe the following circumstances: First, many of the ova are completely formed, and covered with a hard shell, before copulation: secondly, the animals are a vast while in the act of copulation: and thirdly, the bags at the anus are filled during the time of copulation. From the first observation it appears, that the egg can receive the male influence through the hard or horny part of the shell. To know how far the whole, or only a part of the eggs, were impregnated by each copulation, I made the following experiments.* I took a female just emerged out of her cell, and put * All these experiments on the silk-moth were begun in the summer 1767, and repeated by Mr. Bell in the year 1770. a male to her, and allowed them to be connected their full time. They were in copulation ten hours. I then put her into a box by herself, and when she laid her eggs, I numbered the different parcels as she laid them, viz. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5; these eggs I preserved, and in the summer following I perceived that the No. 5 was as prolific as the No. 1; so that this one copulation was capable of impregnating the whole brood: and therefore the male influence must go either along the oviduct its whole length, and impregnate the incomplete eggs, as well as the complete, which appears to me not likely; or those not yet formed were impregnated from the reservoir in the act of laying: for I conceived that these bags, by containing semen, had a power of impregnating the egg as it passed along to the anus, just as it traversed the mouth of the duct of communication. Finding that eggs completely formed, could be impregnated by the semen, and also finding that the before-mentioned bag was a reservoir for the semen till wanted, I wished next to discover if they could be impregnated from the semen of this bag; but as this must be done without the act of copulation, I conceived it proper, first, to see whether the ova of insects might be impregnated without the natural act of copulation, by applying the male semen over the ova, just as they were laid. The following experiments were made on the silk-moth: **EXPERIMENT I.** I took a female moth, as soon as she escaped from her pod, and kept her carefully by herself, upon a clean card, till she began to lay; then I took males that were ready for copula- tion, opened them, exposing their seminal ducts, and after cutting into these, collected their semen with a hair pencil: with this semen I covered the ova, as soon as they passed out of the vagina. The card with these eggs, having a written account of the experiment upon it, I kept in a box by itself. In the ensuing season, eight of the ova hatched at the same time with others naturally impregnated. Thus, then, I ascertained that the eggs could be impregnated by art, after they were laid. The ova laid by females that had not been impregnated, did not stick where they were laid: so that the semen would appear not only to impregnate the ova, but also to be the means of attaching them. To know whether that bag in the female silk-moth, which increased at the time of copulation, was filled with the semen of the male, I made the following experiment: **EXPERIMENT II.** I took a female moth, as soon as she had escaped from the pod, and kept her on a card till she began to lay. I then took females that were fully impregnated before they began to lay, and dissected out that bag which I supposed to be the receptacle for the male semen; and wetting a camel hair pencil with this matter, covered the ova as soon as they passed out of the vagina. These ova were laid carefully on the clean card, and kept till the ensuing season, when they all hatched at the same time with those naturally impregnated. This proves that this bag is the receptacle for the semen, and gradually decreases as the eggs are laid. Of the Sting of the Bee. I have observed that it is only the queen and the labourers that have stings; and this provision of a sting is perhaps as curious a circumstance as any attending the bee, and probably is one of the characters of the bee tribe. The apparatus itself is of a very curious construction, fitted for inflicting a wound, and at the same time conveying a poison into that wound. The apparatus consists of two piercers, conducted in a groove, or director, which appears to be itself the sting. This groove is somewhat thick at its base, but terminates in a point; it is articulated to the last scale of the upper side of the abdomen by thirteen thin scales, six on each side, and one behind the rectum. These scales inclose, as it were, the rectum or anus all round; they can hardly be said to be articulated to each other, only attached by thin membranes, which allow of a variety of motions; three of them, however, are attached more closely to a round and curved process, which comes from the basis of the groove in which the sting lies, as also to the curved arms of the sting, which spread out externally. The two stings may be said to begin by those two curved processes at their union with the scales, and converging towards the groove at its base, which they enter, then pass along it to its point. They are serrated on their outer edges, near to the point. These two stings can be thrust out beyond the groove, although not far, and they can be drawn within it; and, I believe, can be moved singly. All these parts are moved by muscles, which we may suppose are very strong in them, much stronger than in other animals; and these muscles give motion in almost all directions, but more particularly outwards. It is wonderful how deep they will pierce solid bodies with the sting. I have examined the length they have pierced the palm of the hand, which is covered with a thick cuticle: it has often been about the $\frac{1}{2}$ of an inch. To perform this by mere force, two things are necessary, power of muscles, and strength of the sting; neither of which they seem to possess in sufficient degree. I own I do not understand this operation. I am apt to conceive there is something in it distinct from simple force applied to one end of a body; for if this was simply the case, the sting of the bee could not be made to pierce by any power applied to its base, as the least pressure bends it in any direction: it is possible the serrated edges may assist, by cutting their way in, like a saw. The apparatus for the poison consists of two small ducts, which are the glands that secrete the poison: these two lie in the abdomen, among the air-cells, &c.: they both unite into one, which soon enters into, or forms, an oblong bag, like a bladder of urine; at the opposite end of which passes out a duct, which runs towards the angle where the two stings meet; and entering between the two stings, is continued between them in a groove, which forms a canal by the union of the two stings to this point. There is another duct on the right of that described above, which is not so circumscribed, and contains a thicker matter, which, as far as I have been able to judge, enters along with the other: but it is the first that contains the poison, which is a thin, clear fluid. To ascertain which was the poison, I dipped points of needles into both, and pricked the back of the hand; and those punctures that had the fluid from the first-described bags in them grew sore and inflamed, while the others did not. From the stings having serrated edges, it is seldom the bees can disengage them; and they immediately upon stinging endeavour to make their escape, but are generally prevented, as it were caught in their own trap; and the force they use commonly drags out the whole of the apparatus for stinging, and also part of the bowels; so that the bee most frequently falls a sacrifice immediately upon having effected its purpose. Upon a superficial view, one conceives, that the first intention of the bee having a sting is evident; one sees it has property to defend, and that therefore it is fitted for defence; but why it should naturally fall a sacrifice in its own defence, does not so readily appear: besides, all bees have stings, although all bees have not property to defend, and therefore are not under the same necessity of being so provided. Probably its having a sting to use, was sufficient for nature to defend the bee, without using it liberally; and the loss of a bee or two, when they did sting, was of no consequence; for it is seldom that more die. I have now carried the operations of a hive, or the oeconomy of the bee, completely round the year; in which time they revolve to the first point we set out at, and the continuance is only a repetition of the same revolutions as I have now described: but those revolutions occasion a series of effects in the comb, which effects in time produce variations in the life of the hive. Besides, there are observations that have little to do with the oeconomy of a year, but include the whole of the life of this insect, or at least its hive. Of the Life of the Bee. I have observed that the life of the male is only one summer, or rather a month or two; and this we know from there being none in the winter, otherwise their age could not be ascertained, as it is impossible to learn the age of either the queen or labourers. Some suppose that it is the young bees which swarm; and most probably it is so: but I think it is probable also, that a certain number of young ones may be retained to keep up the stock, as we must suppose that many of the old ones are, from accidents of various kinds, lost to the hive; and we could conceive, that a hive three or four years old might not have an original bee in it, although a bee might live twice that time. But there must be a period for a bee to live; and if I were to judge from analogy, I should say, that a bee's natural life is limited to a certain number of seasons; viz. one bee does not live one year, another two, another three, &c. I even conceive that no individual insect of any species lives one month longer than the others of the same species. I believe this is the case with all insects; but the age of either a labourer or a queen may never be discovered. One might suppose that the life of a bee, and the time a hive can possibly last, would be nearly equal: although this is not absolutely necessary, because they can produce a succession, which they probably do; for I am very ready to imagine, that after the first brood in the season, all the last winter bees die, and the hive is occupied with this first brood; and that they breed the first swarm, or that the old breed the whole of this season's breeding, and then die, and those that continue through the winter are the young; and if so, then they follow the same course with their progenitors. The comb of a hive may be said to be the furniture and storehouse of the bees, which by use wear out; and from the description I have given, it will appear that the comb in time will be rendered unfit for use. I observed, that they did not clean out the excrement of the maggot, and that the maggot, before it moved into the chrysalis state, lined the cell with a silk, similar to many other insects. It lines the whole cell, top, sides, and bottom; the two last are permanent; and at the bottom it covers with this lining its own excrement.* Why the bee maggot is formed to do this, is, probably, because honey afterwards is to be put into this cell; so that the honey is laid into this last silken bag. How often they may breed in the same cell I do not know, but I have known them three times in the same season; each time the excrement has been accumulating, and the cell has been lined three times with silk. From this account we must see that a cell, in time, will be so far filled up as to render it unfit for breeding. On separating the lining of silk, which is easiest done at the bottom, on account of the dried excrement between each lining, I have counted above twenty different linings in one cell, and found the cell about one quarter, or one third, filled up: when such a cell, or a piece of comb with such cells, is steeped in water, so as to soften the excrement between the linings, they are sepa- * This neither the wasp nor hornet do, although they do not clean out the excrement of their maggots, MDCCXCII. rated from each other at the bottom by the swelling of the excrement, so that they can be easily counted. A piece of comb so circumstanced, when boiled for the wax, will keep its form, and the small quantity of wax is squeezed out at different parts, as if squeezed out of a sponge, and runs together into the crevices: while a piece of comb, that never has been bred in, even of the same hive, melts almost wholly down. It is this wax that has the fine yellow, while the other of the same hives, although brown, yet shall be white when melted; so that I was led to imagine the wax took its tinge from the farina, excrement, &c. but upon boiling pure wax with such materials, it was not tinged with this transparent yellow, only became dirty. In some of those cells that had probably been bred in twenty times, or more, when soaked so as to make the excrement swell, I have seen the bottom of the last lining rise even with the mouth, or top of the cell, so that the cavity of the cell was now full: in others, I have seen it rise higher than the mouth, so that the last formed layers were almost inverted, and turned inside out. A piece of such comb, consisting of two rows of cells, is to be considered as a mould, and the lining of silk and the excrement as the cast; when this is boiled, so as either to extract all the wax or mould, or to destroy its original regular formation which constituted the comb, and nothing is left but the cells of silk, &c. they all easily separate from each other, being only so many casts, with the mould destroyed; and the bottoms, which were indented into each other, are very perfect. From the above account we must see that the combs of a hive can only last a certain number of years; however, to make them last longer, the bees often add a little to the mouth of the cell, which is seldom done with wax alone, but with a mixture; and they sometimes cover the silk lining of the last chrysalis; but all this makes such cells clumsy, in comparison to the original ones. To Charles Blagden, M.D. Sec.R.S. Dear Sir, In a Paper on the Chronology of the Hindoos, which the Society did me the honour to print in the LXXXth Volume of their Transactions, I have said (p. 566 and 570) that the era of Bikramajit commences in the year 56 before Christ, and that the year 1846 corresponds with our year 1790 (from April): but it appears from an examination of the numbers of an original Benares almanack, that I have calculated the elapsed time of that era one year short (by comparison with the era of Salabán, which being employed in astronomical computations is sufficiently ascertained), and that the year 1847, not 1846, should correspond with 1790, and the commencement of the era with the year 57 before Christ, both from April. I am very desirous that this error should be noticed as soon as possible, and request that the correction may have a place in the Volume now printing. I am, dear Sir, &c. WM. Marsden.