THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESENTED BY PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID THE HONEY-BEE: ITS NATURE, HOMES, AND PRODUCTS. THE HONEY-BEE ITS NATURE, HOMES, AND PRODUCTS. BY W. H. HARRIS, B.A., B.Sc. LONDON: THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY, 56, PATERNOSTER Row; 65, ST. PAUL'S CHURCHYARD, AND 164, PICCADILLY. LONDON : R. CLAY, SONS, AND TAYLOR, PRINTERS, BREAD STREET HILL. CONTENTS. PAGES INTRODUCTION . . . i — 3 CHAPTER I. HISTORIC SKETCH. Holy Scriptures — Vedas — Egyptian Monuments — The Koran — Etymological Considerations — Literature of Subject — Aris- totle— Philiscus— Pliny — Vergil — Columella — Other Classical Authors — Shakespeare — Modern Writers 4 — 9 CHAPTER II. NATURAL HISTORY. Orders of Insects — Stages of Development — Egg, Larva, Pupa, Imago or Perfect Insect — Three Classes of Bees : Queen, Drones, Workers 10 — 16 CHAPTER III. THE QUEEN-BEE. Early Errors as to Sex — The "Mother Bee" — Distinguishing Characteristics — Functions — Attentions paid her — Effects of Loss ; how Repaired by Bees — Enmity to Rivals — Length of Life — Egg-laying 17 M349434. CONTENTS. CHAPTER IV. THE DRONES. PAGES Distinguishing Characteristics — Time of Hatching — Numbers — Purposes served by them — Destruction by Workers or other means — Unusual Survival 29 — 34 CHAPTER V. THE WORKERS. Distinguishing Characteristics — Supposed Differences of Function among them — Sir John Lubbock's Experiments — Fertile Workers— Length of Life— "Black Bees"— Duties of Workers 35—43 CHAPTER VI. HONEY. Origin — how Collected and Stored — Constitution — Poisonous Honey — Best varieties of Honey — Distances traversed by Bees in search of Honey — Uses 44 — 48 CHAPTER VII. MEAD. Nature — Method of Manufacture — Metheglin and Mead — Estima- tion in former times — Queen Elizabeth's Recipe — Scandi- navian liking for Mead 49 — 52 CHAPTER VIII. WAX. Origin — Production — Chemical Constitution — Comb-Building — Detailed Description — Amount of Wax in Hives — Commer- cial Value — Properties 53—71 CHAPTER IX. POLLEN, OR BEE-BREAD. Origin — Collection — Conveyance — Deposition — Quantity Stored — Uses — Artificial Substitutes 72 — 75 CONTENTS. CHAPTER X. PROPOLIS. PAGES Derivation of Word — Sources — Nature — Purposes — Quantity Col- lected— Adaptation of Materials to Wants of Bees .... 76 — 79 CHAPTER XL PHYSIOLOGY OF THE BEE. Nervous System — The Head — Eyes — Compound and Simple — Uses and Powers — Sir John Lubbock's Experiments — The Antennae — Structure and Uses — Mouth — Detailed Descrip- tion . 80 — ico CHAPTER XII. HEARING, TASTE, AND SMELLING. Hearing — Sir John Lubbock's Experiments — Sounds uttered by Queen — Effects produced by them — Smell-Organs — Purposes — Liking for, and Antipathy to, certain Effluvia — Discovery by Bees of Nectar and Honey 101— 108 CHAPTER XIII. THE THORAX. Detailed Description — Legs — Wings — how used in Flight — Hooking together — Employed for Ventilating 109 — 114 CHAPTER XIV. THE ABDOMEN. Respiratory Organs — Circulation of Nutritive Fluid — Digestion and Nutrition — Secretion of Wax — Reproductive Organs — Detailed description of Sting — Effects of Poison — Queen's Sting 115 — 128 CONTENTS. CHAPTER XV. THE DISEASES OF BEES. PAGES Dysentery : How Produced — Indications — Treatment. Foul- Brood : two kinds — Nature — Propagation. Mr. Cheshire's Discoveries and Treatment — Fatal Effects of Disease — De- tection— Vertigo — Analogy of Human and Bee Diseases. 129 — 138 CHAPTER XVI. THE ENEMIES OF BEES. Birds — Mice — Moths — Braula Cceca — Hornets and Wasps — Spiders — Toads — " Robber Bees" — Prevention of robbing. I39—H7 CHAPTER XVII. HIVES. Natural Abodes of Wild Bees — Taking Honey from Roof of House — Straw Skeps— Cottager's Hive — Supering — Nutt's Collateral Hive — Village Hive — Woodbury Hive — Abbott's Hives — Sectional Supering — Stewarton Hive — Carr- Stewarton Hive — Observatory Hives — Bee-houses . . 148 — 170 CHAPTER XVIII. NATURAL SWARMING. General Facts connected with Swarming — Reconnoitring — Settl- ing— Hiving — Curious Incidents — Transferring Swarms to Bar- Frame Hives — Division of Swarms — Placing Swarm in Permanent Position — Number of Bees in Swarming — "Casts" and Later Swarms — Prevention of Swarming — Feeding of Swarms I71 — CHAPTER XIX. ARTIFICIAL SWARMING. Advantages -Driving: Close and Open— Transfer to Bar-Frame Hive— Conditions of Successful Driving — Various Methods of Artificial Swarming with Bar-Frame Hives .... 187—195 CONTENTS. CHAPTER XX. QUEEN REARING. PAGES Protection of Queen-cells — Nucleus Hives — Various Methods of Queen Rearing — American Plan — Introduction of Stranger Queens — Difficulties 196 — 200 CHAPTER XXI. FEEDING. Troughs— Dangers of this Method — Bottle Feeders — Cheshire's Feeding Stage — Neighbour's Can Feeder — The "Round- feeder" — Autumn Feeding — Spring Feeding — Uses of Pre- cautions— Summer Feeding of Swarms — Flour-cake — Barley- sugar or Sugar-cake — Mr. Hunter's Recipe 201 — 213 CHAPTER XXII. WINTERING BEES. False and True Hybernation — Temperature of Hive in Winter — Necessity for Quiet during Winter — Structure and Winter- packing of Bar-Frame Hives — Prevention of Draught and Condensation of Vapour — Supply of Water 214 — 220 CHAPTER XXIII. BEE-STINGS. Gentleness necessary in Manipulation — Causes of Irritation of Bees— Examination of Stocks— Treatment of Stings — Reme- dies— Effects of Stings — Inoculation — Bee Dress — Smoke and its Uses . . 221 — 228 CHAPTER XXIV. PASSIONS AND EMOTIONS OF BEES. Affection for Queen and Brood — Recognition of Friends and Strangers — Fear — Anger — Covetousness — Benevolence — Re- morse— Hope — Instinctive or Sense-action 229 — 233 CONTENTS. CHAPTER XXV. INTELLECT AND INSTINCT IN BEES. PAGES Intellect in Man and Animals as Related to Immortality — Memory — Judgment — Instances of Attention — Prevision — Provision — Instinct — Manifestations — Bearing on Evolution . . . 234 — 243 CHAPTER XXVI. BEES IN RELATION TO FLOWERS. Connection of Plant-life and Insect-life — Reproduction of Flowers — Intervention of Insects — Hermaphrodite Flowers — Cross- fertilisation — Cucumbers, Melons, &c. — Popla rs — Firs — Epilobium or Willow Herb — Cincerarias — Darwin's Experi- ments— Nasturtium — Foxglove — Figwort — Salvia — Heath — Strawberry, Raspberry, and Blackberry — Apple and Pear — Altruism of Bees . . 244 — 258 CHAPTER XXVII. SUPERSTITIONS CONNECTED WITH BEES. Superstitions likely to gather around Bees — Unlucky to Buy Bees — Ill Omen for a Swarm to Settle on a Dry Stick — " Have the Bees been told ? " — Turning Hives on the Death of the Owner — Probable Origin of these Errors 259 — 267 CHAPTER XXVIII. THE PROFITS OF BEE-KEEPING. Methods of Honey-taking — Straw Caps — Bell-Glasses — Sections — Frames — Extractors — Run Honey — Average Returns of Hives 268—272 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. FIG. PAGE COMB, SHOWING DIFFERENT KINDS OF CELLS . . Frontispiece 1. EGGS AND LARVA OF BEES 12 2. LARV^: 13 3. SEALED CELLS 14 4. a, LARVA FULL GROWN, VIEWED SIDEWAYS, b, LARVA PREPARING FOR PUPA SJ'ATE . 1 5 5. WORKER LARVA AND PUPA IN COMB 16 6. THE QUEEN OF THE HIVE 19 7. QUEEN SURROUNDED BY ATTENDANTS ...» 20 8. A DRONE 29 9. A WORKER BEE 35 10. A WORKER BEE, SHOWING THE SCALES OF WAX ... 53 11. FESTOONS OF BEES SUSPENDED FROM THE ROOF OF THE HIVE 55 12. CLUSTER OF BEES 58 13. WAX-WORKER COMMENCING A COMB 59 14. DIAGRAM OF CELLS 63 15. SUPPOSED CIRCULAR CELLS 63 16. ARRANGEMENT OF CELLS 64 17. DIAGRAM SHOWING SLOPE OF CELLS 66 18. ARRANGEMENT OF COMBS IN A BELL-GLASS 68 19. THE QUEEN CELL 69 20. QUEEN CELLS IN SITU 70 21. HIND-LEG OF A BEE 73 22. NERVOUS SYSTEM OF PRIVET HAWK MOTH 81 xiv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. FIG. PAGE 23. NERVOUS SYSTEM OF LARVA OF BEE 82 24. NERVOUS SYSTEM OF PERFECT INSECT 83 25. EYES OF A BEE (GREATLY MAGNIFIED) 85 26. FACETS OF EYE OF A BEE 86 27. HEAD OF BEE, WITH ANTENNA 98 28. LOWER SEGMENTS OF HIND-LEG OF BEE, CONSIDERABLY ENLARGED IIO 29. COMPLETE HIND-LEG OF BEE no 30. WING OF BEE , 112 31. HOOKLETS OF A BEE'S WlNG 113 32. ABDOMEN OF BEE, SHOWING RESPIRATORY ORGANS . . 116 33. AIR-SACS OF WORKER 117 34. a, AIR-SACS; b, OVARIES, OF THE QUEEN 118 35. a, TRACHEA; b} ELASTIC SPIRAL OF TRACHEA .... 119 36. UNDER SIDE OF ABDOMEN, SHOWING WAX SCALES ... 121 37. BEE, SHOWING THE WAX SCALES 121 38. SCALES ^ 121 39. OVARIES AND SPERMATHECA OF QUEEN 123 40. STING OF A BEE (GREATLY MAGNIFIED) 125 41. BARBS OF A BEE'S STING (VERY HIGHLY MAGNIFIED) . . 126 42. THE ENEMIES OF BEES 141 43. STRAW SKEP 150 44. FLAT-TOPPED HIVE AND STRAW SUPER 151 45. NEIGHBOUR'S IMPROVED COTTAGER'S HIVE 152 46. „ „ 153 47. MODERN HIVES. NUTT'S COLLATERAL HIVE IN THE FOREGROUND 155 48. THE WOODBURY HIVE 157 49. WOODBURY STRAW BAR-FRAME HIVE 157 50. CHESHIRE'S BAR-FRAME HIVE 159 51. CHESHIRE'S BAR-FRAME HIVE (SECTIONAL VIEW). . . . 160 52. ABBOTT'S STANDARD FRAME 161 53. ,, ,, (TOP VIEW) 161 54. NEIGHBOUR'S SECTIONAL SUPER (OPEN) 162 55. FRAME SUPER 162 56. GLASS FRAME HIVE, WITH SUPER 163 57. STEWARTON HIVE 165 LIST OF ILL US TRA TIONS. xv 58. THE CARR-STEWARTON HIVE 167 59. UNICOMB OBSERVATORY HIVE 168 60. A SWARM 173 61. "TANGING" 174 62. HIVING A SWARM 179 63. SWARMING BOARD 192 64. QUEEN CAGE OVER SEALED CELL 197 65. INSERTED QUEEN CELL 198 66. BOTTLE FEEDER 202 67. CHESHIRE'S FEEDING STAGE 203 68. CAN FEEDER 205 69. ROUND TIN FEEDER 205 70. EPILOBIUM ANGUSTIFOLIUM. (YOUNG BLOOM) 248 71. ,, ,, (OLD BLOOM) 248 72. CINERARIA (MAGNIFIED) 250 73. TROPCEOLUM MAJUS. (YOUNG BLOOM) 252 74. ,, ,, (OLD BLOOM) . 252 75. SECTION OF SCROPHULARIA NODOSA 254 76. SCROPHULARIA NODOSA. (YOUNG BLOOM) 254 77- » » (°LD BLOOM) 254 78. SALVIA OFFICINALIS. (NEW BLOOM) 255 79- » » (°LD BLOOM) 255 80. a, ERICA TETRALIX. b, ANTHER OF TETRALIX .... 255 81. SECTION OF STRAWBERRY BLOOM 256 82. SECTION OF APPLE BLOOM 257 THE HONEY-BEE. ERRATA. p. 22, ten lines from bottom, for ''not full grown" read "not more than two or three days old." p. 30, last line "but one from the bottom, for " neuters " read •' strange workers." p. 55, line 10 from bottom, for " hind feet " read " pincers on the hind legs." p. 110, bottom line, for "four anterior tarsi" read ''in the hind legs." p. Ill, line 3. for " leg " read " hind leg." ., line 6, for " This .pocket " read "Above this, on the outside of the tibia, is a pocket, lined, &c." p. 136, line 12, for " foul-breeding " read " foul-broody." ADDENDA. p. 126, three lines from bottom, add — "The most remarkable function of the sting- apparatus has, in modern times, been discovered to be the insertion of a minute drop of the poison in each honey-cell when filled. This acts as an anti-septic, and prevents fermentation in the sweet liquid." p. 136, after first paragraph, add — " It is now known that this treatment is by no means always successful when the bacilli have reached the "resting" or "spor^" stage. THE HONEY-BEE: ITS NATURE, HOMES, AND PRODUCTS. INTRODUCTION. IN these days of intense business-pressure, it is a good thing for men to cultivate hobbies. We say this, notwithstanding the fact that men with hobbies are likely to become bores, from thinking and talking too incessantly of their pet occupations, or are apt to run into extravagant expenditure of time and money, which could be better utilised. Now, in recommend- ing apiculture, or bee-keeping, as a recreation from more serious pursuits, we feel that we incur little risk of increasing the number of bores in society, or of inducing an undue outlay of hours or pounds on the part of those who follow our suggestions. P'or, on the one hand, the facts likely to be spoken of by enthusiastic apiarians to casual hearers could not fail to interest ; while the practical results of bee-keeping will certainly, to say the least, repay in hard cash all B THE HONEY-BEE. reasonable outlay on the part of any one who is possessed of ordinary good sense, and who learns to manage his hives according to modern methods. In the following pages we hope to make good both these statements. We are sure that comparatively few people know what marvellous creatures bees are ; what constant pleasure may be found in watching their work ; what opportunities for skilful use of brain and hand are afforded by an apiary ; what a wide field of study and information is displayed by these do- mesticated insects : and though we shall not hold out dazzling prospects of a large return of money from the pursuit we are commending, we shall show by facts that, in ordinary seasons, the yield of honey should amply cover the cost of the bees, their homes, and their requirements. Nor would we be understood to limit our recom- mendation of bee-keeping to men alone. It is an occupation eminently suited to women. It has none of the manifest drawbacks of poultry or rabbit- rearing. The needs of the hives are usually not so pressing as to involve a disregard of weather or im- portant engagements. Many operations in apiculture call for female dexterity of hand and finger. It is true that a little courage, in which few ladies are deficient, is necessary in making a beginning of skilful bee- management. But, duly protected by veil and gloves, even the timid need have no fear of being stung or seriously incommoded. Intelligent boys and girls of fifteen years and upwards will find a hive or two of bees quite within their power of management, and the clever and in- dustrious insects will afford them a surprising amount INTRODUCTION. of interest, and, it may be, some not unimportant moral lessons. In the hope of enlarging popular knowledge of these wonderful insects, and so of increasing api- culture, we have written this book. It does not profess to go exhaustively into the practical part of bee-keeping ; but enough information is given for ordinary apiarian purposes. The excellent publications of Langstroth, Cowan, Cheshire, Neighbour, Hunter, Taylor and Wood will supply all details intentionally omitted from the pre- sent treatise. To several of the above writers, and to some others mentioned at the end of Chapter I., the author desires to express his obligations for numerous facts. Many of the most important illustrations in Chapters XL and XIV., and the whole of those in Chapter XXVI. have been taken, by permission, from the diagrams published by the British Bee- keepers' Association. These diagrams are reductions from drawings made by Mr. Frank Cheshire, who is so well known as having devoted many years to the study of apiculture, especially on its scientific side. To the same gentleman is also due the discovery of many of the physiological marvels given in Chapters XL and XIV., and of the chief facts embodied in the chapter on " Bees in relation to Flowers." B 2 l( -CHAPTER I. HISTORIC SKETCH. Holy Scriptures — Vedas — Egyptian Monuments — The Koran — Etymo- logical Considerations — Literature of Subject — Aristotle — Philiscus — Pliny — Virgil — Columella — Other Classical Authors — Shake- speare— Modern Writers. FAR back in historic time there are records that man had learnt the value of the bee. The book of Job — probably the oldest of our sacred Scriptures — contains a reference to honey. The Pentateuch, the Chronicles of the Israelites, the Psalms, the works of Solomon, and nearly all the later books of the Old Testament, speak of these wonderful insects or their produce. They are referred to in the Vedas of Hindostan, the monuments of Egypt, the poems of Homer and Euripides, and the narrative of Xenophon's expedition into Persia. Throughout the ancient civilised world the virtues of honey were celebrated, and the habits of the bee served to point a moral for human conduct. It is remarkable that in the Koran we find Mahomet representing the Almighty as addressing this insect alone of all the creatures He had made : " The Lord spake by inspiration unto the bee, saying, ' Provide HISTORIC SKETCH. thee houses in the mountains and in the trees, and of those materials wherewith men build hives for thee ; then eat of every kind of fruit, and walk in the beaten paths of thy Lord.' There proceedeth from their bellies a liquor of various colours, wherein is a medicine for men. Verily, herein is a sign unto people who consider." The ancient Egyptians must have known much of the domestic economy of the hive, for they took the figure of the insect to symbolise a people governed by a sovereign, and this so far back as the twelfth dynasty, or 2080 — 1920 B.C. It has been argued on etymological grounds that in a much remoter period still, the human race had domesticated the bee ; for in Sanskrit ma means honey, madhupa honey drinker, and madhukara honey maker. Madhu is evidently the origin of our word mead. Again, mih or mat, in Chinese, signifies honey ; and it can hardly be a mere coincidence which has brought about so close a resemblance between the Turanian and the Indo-European terms above men- tioned. We have rather the indication of the survival of a name in two branches of a still older language than either of the Asiatic tongues, from which so large a proportion of modern speech has flowed, thus carrying us back to an enormously remote period in the history of man. The Latin mel, and French miel, both meaning honey, are, of course, the offspring of the Greek ; and all the above words, according to some authorities, point to the circumstance of the constructive power of the insect having impressed the minds of men emphatically. In the Teutonic languages biene, bee, &c., are THE HONEY-BEE. evidently connected with by — a termination met with in many English towns, and signifying " a dwelling " ; and so we see that it was not so much the sweet liquid procured and stored by the insects, as the skill and beauty with which they fashioned their combs, which struck their human observers ; and though we cannot with certainty affirm that men domesticated them in these remote times, it seems probable that races who, before the historic period, had learnt to make use of most of the animals now under immediate subjection to the wants and purposes of man, saw the convenience and wisdom of turning to account the nectar-collecting habits of the bee. Jacob, seven- teen centuries before Christ, told his sons to take " a little honey " among their presents to the lord of Egypt. Again, the land of Canaan was pictured by God to Moses as "a land flowing with milk and honey." We should, therefore, probably be justified in inferring that, as the one liquid was derived from herds under the people's control, so, too, the other came from domesticated insects. It may be that no hives were used at so early a period as the six- teenth century before Christ, and the reference in Ps. Ixxxi. 1 6 — "with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee " — would seem to indicate that, at a much later date, the bees were left at large in their native haunts. Still, the numerous references of the earlier Scriptures make it plain that honey was an article of common use, and was obtainable at the discretion of those in Palestine who wished for it. With regard to the ancient literature of our subject, the first treatise on the bee now extant is that of Aristotle in his History of Animals, written about HISTORIC SKETCH. 330 B.C. Observations of a scientific kind had, however, been made with regard to these insects by a philosopher of Asia Minor, who is said to have devoted a long lifetime to watching their habits. Unfortunately, the records of his studies in this department of entomology have not survived to our day. We have also to regret that later ages lost the benefit of the labours of Philiscus of Thasos, who is said to have abandoned the abodes of men for a forest life, that he might learn all that was possible of the nature and work of these creatures, which seemed to him so marvellous in their structure and their doings. It is Pliny the Elder — the well-known Roman man of science, who lived near the beginning of the Christian era — to whom we are indebted for notices of the workers in natural history just men- tioned, while he himself devotes some considerable space in his own book to a description of the bee. Nearly a century earlier, Vergil, the poet of rural life, as well as of loftier themes, wrote a charming book — his Fourth Georgic— on the subject of these our winged friends. We may smile at his wondrous plan for securing a prodigious swarm, and modern methods may claim far more reasonableness and success than those he advocates in apiculture; but we may rejoice to see how bewitching was the pursuit of bee-keeping nearly two millenniums ago, and how true it has been through all the centuries, as the French writer Gelieu says, " Beaucoup de gens aiment les abeilles ; je rial vu personne qui les aima mediocre - ment : on se passionne pour elles" The orator Cicero makes frequent reference to them in his charming treatise on Old Age, THE HONEY-BEE. and other classical writers allude not unfrequently to these insects. Columella, who lived in the first century of the Christian era, gave, in his work De re rusticd, many directions for apiarians ; and though, of course, abounding, like Vergil's work, in errors on certain points, his book shows a decided advance beyond the knowledge of preceding writers. We might speak of Theophrastus, Celsus, and Varro as contributing to the literature of bee-lore, but it would be beyond the scope of our design to detail what they have written on the subject. Coming, however, down to much more recent times, and to our own country, we cannot resist the temp- tation to quote the well-known lines of our most marvellous poet Shakespeare, whose comprehensive intellect almost rivalled that of Solomon, for "he spake of trees, from the cedar-tree that is in Lebanon, even1 unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall : he spake also of beasts and of fowl and of creep- ing things and of fishes." The passage to which we now especially refer is to be found in his play of Henry F., act i. sc. 2 : — "Therefore doth heaven divide The state of man in divers functions, Setting endeavour in continual motion ; To which is fixed, as an aim or butt, Obedience : for so work the honey-bees ; Creatures, that, by a rule in nature, teach The act of order to a peopled kingdom. They have a king and officers of sorts : Where some, like magistrates, correct at home : Others, like merchants, venture trade abroad ; Others, like soldiers, armed in their stings Make boot upon the summer's velvet buds ; HISTORIC SKETCH. Which pillage, they, with merry march, bring home To the tent-royal of their emperor : Who, busied in his majesty, surveys The singing masons building roofs of gold ; The civil citizens kneading up the honey ; The poor mechanic- porters crowding in Their heavy burdens at his narrow gate ; The sad-eyed justice, with his surly hum, Delivering o'er to executors pale The lazy yawning drone." Of more recent writers we may mention the French Reaumur; the Swiss, Bonnet; and Huber, of Geneva, who, with his assistant Burnens, gave the world so many wondrous details of bee-life and habits. In our own country, Dr. John Hunter, Dr. John Evans, who has been called the " poet-laureate of bees," Shuckard, Sir John Lubbock, Cowan, John Hunter, Taylor, Cheshire, Alfred Neighbour, Pettigrew, Abbott, and many writers in the British Bee Journal, have largely added to our apiarian knowledge. Not only in America, but universally, the Rev. L. L. Langstroth, of Ohio, has a well-earned reputation for his researches and his practical instructions with regard to apiculture. In Germany, Dr. Dzierzon of Carlsmarkt, in Silesia, and Baron von Berlepsch, of Coburg, stand at the very head of authorities on all that relates to bees and bee-keeping. CHAPTER II. NATURAL HISTORY. Orders of Insects — Stages of Development — Egg, Larva, Pupa, Imago or Perfect Insect — Three Classes of Bees : Queen, Drones, Workers. IT will be observed from the title of this book that it deals with the honey-bee. The necessity of this restriction will become immediately evident when we mention the fact that in Great Britain there are no less than twenty-seven genera and 177 species of native bees, none of which have been successfully domesticated except Apis mellifica, or the ordinary hive-bee. The term " insect " has unfortunately been loosely employed in popular parlance to include such diverse beings as coral-polyps and house-flies. As the name itself indicates, it is properly applicable only to such animals as are more or less distinctly divided into segments. All true insects, in fact, are plainly divisi- ble in their perfect state into three portions, the head, thorax, and abdomen. The most important classes in this portion of the animal kingdom are distinguished by the characteristics of their wings, and are — NA TURAL HISTOR Y. 1 1 I. Coleoptera, or those possessing crustaceous sheathing wing-covers, including all the beetles. II. Ort/wptera, having the wings when at rest in straight longitudinal folds, comprising such families as the earwigs, cockroaches, grasshoppers, and locusts. III. Neuroptera, nerve-winged, characterised by four naked, strongly reticulated organs of flight, as seen in dragon-flies, may-flies, and white ants. IV. Hymenoptera, membrane-winged, resembling the Neuroptera in some respects, but with fewer reticula- tions, and their organs of flight when in use are hooked together along the margins, so as to expose a con- tinuous surface. Another distinguishing character is the appendage at the tail, in the form of either a sting or an ovipositor. The chief representative families are the bees, wasps, gad-flies, ants, and ichneumons. V. Lepidoptera, having the wings covered with a scale-like powder, set like the tiles of a house. The butterflies and moths all belong to this order. VI. Diptera, or two-winged insects, embracing the gnats, " daddy-long-legs," blow-flies, and house-flies. Less important are the Homoptera, which have the wings of the same consistence throughout, as the aphides or blight-insects. The Heteroptera, having the fore-wings coriaceous (or leathery) at the base and membranous towards the extremity. These comprise the bug tribe ; while fleas belong to the Aptera, or wingless insects. Insects pass through four stages during their life- time : the egg, the larva, the pupa, and the imago conditions. The honey-bee exists in each of these states. 12 THE HONEY-BEE. The egg. — All the eggs of the community are laid by the queen. The cells in which they are deposited vary in size and in shape, according to whether queens, drones, or workers are to be developed in them. In length the eggs are about one-twelfth of an inch ; in shape, oblong, but a little broader at the FIG. i.— EGG'S AND LARVA OF BEES. upper than at the lower end, and slightly curved ; in colour they are white, with a bluish tinge. Their external coat is slightly glutinous when they are first laid, and thus they adhere to the bottom of the cell in which they are deposited. The larva. — Under the genial influence of the heat of the hive, ranging from 66° to 70° Fahr., the formation of the larva from the egg-contents imme- diately begins ; and, in the course of three days, a tiny worm or grub has been developed, and makes its way out of its delicate shell. It now lies curled round, still at the base of its dwelling, and, fed by the nurse-bees on a jelly-like mixture of pollen and honey, it rapidly grows. Its food supply is made strictly correspondent to its wants, and by the time the larva is ready for its next change not a drop of the jelly is unconsumed. The fleshy white grub is in shape at first slightly, and afterwards strongly NATURAL HISTORY. 13 curved, and a little pointed at each end. The future segments of the insect now become gradually visible, fifteen in number, and ten of them are furnished each with a minute aperture on opposite sides of the body, and connected with air-tubes, or spiracles, by which respiration is carried on. The segments have also a series of minute tubercles, whose office seems to be to aid in the motions of the grub, which motions doubt- less contribute to the assimilation of food, and so to growth. The head of the larva is small, is smooth above, and is furnished with two little projecting horns, from which will be developed the future antennae. FIG. 2.— LARVJE. a. Worker larvae. ft. Queen larva. c. Queen cell sealed. The jaws are small, and articulate below a nar- row lip. They are constantly in motion, probably to reduce the pollen-grains existing in the so-called bee-bread, which, with honey, as already mentioned, constitute their food. Beneath the jaws, and cen- trally between them, is a fleshy protuberance, which THE HONEY-BEE. has a perforation at its extremity, through which the larva emits a sticky fluid, similar to that from which spider's-web or silk is made. With this the grub spins for itself a cocoon, in which a further and im- portant transformation takes place in the structure of the insect. The time occupied in making this silken dress is, for drone- and worker-larvae, thirty-six hours. Prin- cesses, who trouble themselves to make only half- cocoons, finish theirs in twenty-four hours. So soon as the grubs are ready for this process, the nurse-bees FIG. 3. — SEALED CELLS. form over the entrance to each cell a lid made of wax and a sticky substance called propolis ; leaving, how- ever, minute perforations for the admission of air. These coverings are darker than the caps of the honey-cells. They are also somewhat convex over worker-larvae, and over drone-grubs they stand out almost hemispherically. Hence it is easy to dis- tinguish the look of brood cells from that of those NA TURAL HIS TOR Y. 1 5 containing food-stores. Moreover, the former are situated usually in or near the centre of each comb, while the latter, where the two co-exist, are found FIG. 4. — A. LARVA FULL GROWN, VIEWED SIDEWAYS. B. LARVA PREPARING FOR PUPA STATE. near the top. It is very important to learn the difference in appearance between the two, as several points of successful manipulation depend upon the knowledge. The nymph or pupa. — In this condition the insect is at first semi-transparent, and white, with a yellowish tinge. Hour by hour the various organs of the per- fect bee proceed in their development, and become more and more discernible through the thin pellicle enshrouding them. On the head, the eyes and an- tennae assume their ultimate size and marvellous structure. The legs and wings are clearly seen folded lengthwise along the thorax and abdomen. The chitinous covering of the body attains increasing firmness, and the colour of the exterior deepens to a greyish brown. At length, in periods varying in the three classes of inmates of the hive, maturity is reached. In the case of queens, sixteen days suffice for complete metamor- phosis from the egg to the full-grown insect. Drones require twenty-four days, and workers from nineteen to twenty-two days, according to the warmth of the weather, to go through all their changes. 1 6 THE HONEY-BEE. When ready to emerge from the cell, the young bee nibbles round the lid of its abode, and bursting its cocoon along the back, it crawls forth in its imago or perfect condition. Forthwith the busy nurses clean it from any remains of its silken covering ; brush its legs and antennae; pull its wings and fuss about it, as if to urge it to action and to arouse it to a due sense of its newly acquired powers. Speedily awakened to its responsibilities, the young bee as- sumes, as its earliest duties, the tending of the brood- cells, the feeding of the larvae, and the various offices FIG. 5.— WORKER LARVA AND PUPA IN COMB. so recently performed for itself by its slightly older sisters. Then, as strength increases, the wings are tried in flight ; the locality of its home is reconnoitred, and in two or three days after its emergence into its complete condition it issues forth on journeys, nearer or more remote, in search of stores for the perpetually recurring wants of the succession of children continu- ally being reared in the hive. Each complete community of bees consists of three classes ; first, the queen, who is the parent of all the offspring ; second, the drones, or males ; and third, the workers, which are really undeveloped females. CHAPTER III. THE QUEEN-BEE Early Errors as to Sex — The " Mother Bee" — Distinguishing Charac- teristics— Functions — Attentions ipaid her — Effects of Loss-; how Repaired by Bees — Enmity to Rivals — Length of Life — Egg-laying. ONE of the earliest facts ascertained in the study of bees was that there existed in each colony one individual differing considerably from all the rest in appearance and in functions. Early observers, it is true, mistook even the sex of the one so distinguished. Vergil says : " Et circa regern atque ipsa ad prgetoria densae Miscentur." And, again, " Rege incolumi mens omnibus una est." Shakespeare, in the passage quoted in a previous chapter, talks of "a king," and other writers were equally ignorant of the true state of the case. The headship of the hive is, in fact, held by a solitary female, to whom the name of " queen " has been given, both on account of the respect she receives, and the controlling influence she appears to exercise over the other inmates of her domain. The Germans, on perfectly safe grounds, call her " the mother-bee " ; and it is, doubtless, owing to the all-important C 1 8 THE HONE Y-BEE. circumstance of the continued existence of the race depending upon her, that she is the object of such intense affection, attention, and devotion. This is corroborated by the circumstance that it is only after she has been fertilised, and begins to lay, that she is much honoured. As princess merely, not the slightest respect is paid to her. She is not even fed by the workers, but has to help herself, and in doing so must scramble over the busy crowd in her way, not one of whom will trouble to move out of her path. Two or three prominent characteristics serve readily to distinguish the queen from the rest of the bees. In the first place, her body is much longer and more tapering towards its lower extremity. Her wings are shorter in comparison with her length. The upper surface of her body is of a darker and more glossy hue than that of her subjects. Her movements are slower and less anxious in appearance than those of the workers, except at swarming time, when ex- citement quickens her steps, and gives' her an air of purposeless solicitude ; though, in reality, her anxiety is caused by the desire to slay a royal and rival daughter, whose co-existence in the hive she cannot tolerate. A closer examination reveals several other points of difference. In our English species, of which we are now especially speaking, her colour is yellowish underneath ; her head is rounder, her legs are longer, her tongue is more slender and not so extensile as that of the other bees ; and her sting is curved instead of being straight, like the formidable weapon of the workers. It is asserted by some writers that she THE QUEEN-BEE. 19 has a peculiar odour readily distinguishable, and so powerfully attractive to her people, that they will alight on the ringer of any one who has been handling their queen. Several characteristics of a negative kind may also be noted. Her proboscis is not fitted for extracting the nectar of flowers, and she can only lap food, or take it from the tongues of her attendants. She, more- over, has no expansion of the gullet for a honey-bag, since she never requires to collect and carry home the sweet liquid. She possesses no cysts for the elaboration of wax, as she takes no part in con- tributing to the materials of her dwelling. The last FIG. 6. — THE QUEEN OF THE HIVE. pair of legs are convex on the outside, containing no pocket for carrying pollen or propolis ; and the other legs are without the brushes of the workers, which enable them to clear their bodies of the powdery discharge of the anthers of flowers, for she never visits plants. All her wants in the way of nourish- ment are supplied by her subjects. She mates once in her life, when she is a few days old, with a single drone, and on the wing. That is the only occasion of her leaving the hive, except when she leads forth a swarm. Her grand function C 2 20 THE HONEY-BEE. is to lay eggs, and every part of her structure and every power she has is more or less related to this all-important duty. She is, as we have implied, freed from every other office. The hatching, the tending, the rearing, the instruction of her progeny, are entirely taken out of her hands, and it is doubtful whether she has any affection for her children. She is constantly attended by a retinue of ten or twelve FIG. 7. — QUEEN SURROUNDED BY ATTENDANTS. The Queen, or Mother-Bee, as in nature, surrounded by her ladies-in-waiting, and exhibited in a glass hive to the royal visitors at the British Bee- Keepers' Association Show at Kilburn, 1879, by Abbott Bros., Southall. " maids of honour," who all keep their heads turned towards her, clear the way for her, prevent all crowd- ing round her, and supply her with the most nutritious food, previously half digested by them- selves. They caress her with their antennae, and seem to find a real joy in mere proximity to their monarch. Should she, by more rapid movements than usual, outstrip her retiring attendants, the bees with whom she thus unexpectedly comes in contact appear excited and alarmed, and move THE QUEEN-BEE. 21 hastily from her path. So long as she remains sound and well in the hive, all the varied works go on peacefully and incessantly. Should she die or be removed, immediate consternation is manifested. Her subjects rush about in excitement and distress. They buzz around the neighbourhood of the hive, but all active and productive work ceases. They know that unless the disastrous loss can be repaired, their community must perish for lack of new progeny, and when despair seizes them, they seem to act upon the motto, " Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die." But the skilled bee-keeper comes to the rescue when he has ascertained the death or loss of a queen, and introduces another monarch to the distressed community. Care and caution, however, have to be exercised in this operation ; for, until convinced that there is no hope of the restoration of their rightful sovereign, the workers will not tolerate a substitute for her. Even when their hopes are extinguished, it is much safer to cage the new queen, for thirty-six or forty-eight hours, on a comb, so that a gradual acquaintance with one another may be formed before free intercourse is allowed. Otherwise, it will fre- quently happen that the introduced mother-bee will come to grief by stings or by suffocation. Cases, indeed, have occurred in which it has been found impossible to induce a hive to receive a stranger queen, and it has become necessary to amalgamate such a community with another already possessed of a monarch. But, under certain circumstances, the bees will, in a marvellous way, provide themselves with a sovereign. If at the time of discovering their loss 2 2 THE HONE Y-BEE. there are worker-eggs in the hive, and these are only two or three days old, a cell containing one such egg is selected, and enlarged by breaking down the sur- rounding partitions. The shape and direction of the cell are also altered, being made pyriform, or like a pear, and with its open end downwards. The royal cradle, in fact, is made to look like a small acorn-cup inverted. In this abode is deposited a certain amount of so-called " royal jelly," a more pungent and sti- mulating food than that supplied to other larvae, and consisting of a mixture of honey and partially digested pollen. Under the influence of this nourish- ment, the grub, instead of becoming a worker-bee, as it would have done in the usual course of events, undergoes all those important modifications which distinguish the queen from her ordinary offspring ; and, moreover, the necessary transformations from the larval to the perfect condition of the insect are so expedited as to take only sixteen, instead of twenty-one, days. We have said that, if newly-laid eggs exist, these are preferred by the workers for their purpose of queen manufacture ; but they will, if shut up to the necessity, thus transform worker-larvae, if not full grown. Usually, when prompted in this way to provide themselves with a hive-mother, they begin, not one only, but several, apparently to secure themselves against all danger of failure. But the first which comes to maturity assumes the sovereignty, and, unless the condition of the stock requires the speedy emission of a swarm, she will be allowed to gratify her instinctive enmity to rivals, and will destroy them as they are ready to emerge from their cells. This hatred of equals is an extraordinary fact, THE QUEEN-BEE. when we consider that the queen knowingly lays eggs under conditions in which they will, in the ordinary course of events, become princesses. Then another circumstance of peculiar significance, and very marvellous, is that, notwithstanding the absolute authority possessed by the queen under other condi- tions, and in spite of the usual subjection and subservience of the workers, they will not allow their monarch complete liberty in the destruction of her royal progeny. If the crowded state of their dwelling makes it evident that the emission of a colony is necessary, the workers-in-waiting forcibly restrain their sovereign from indulging in her strong desire to slay her fully-developed daughters. She resents the interference, but no assumption of her dignity and authority will avail, and her absolutism is in this direction distinctly limited. Incensed at length beyond endurance, she quits the hive at the head of a swarm of her faithful subjects, and establishes a community where again she will have sole sway. If, on the other hand, circumstances do not neces- sitate a division of the population, the old queen is allowed to destroy the young ones as they issue from the pupa state. It is said that the only other condition in which the workers rebel against their monarch is when she is growing worn out with age, and seems likely to fail in power of egg-laying. Then she is believed, in some instances, to be supplanted ; but it is not known with certainty whether natural death may not account for her removal, or whether she is slain by her subjects, or by a young queen preserved by their intervention. 24 s THE HONEY-BEE. Should the loss of the queen take place when there is no brood-comb in the hive, from the season of the year, or from other circumstances, such as the cessation of egg-laying, the bees often manifest a series of almost frantic efforts to repair their loss. Sometimes they will try to develop a female from drone eggs. They have been known even to take a lump of pollen and surround it with a queen cell, in the absurd hope of getting a monarch so. It some- times happens that one of the workers develops the power of laying eggs, all of which turn to drones — a marvellous fact in parthenogenesis — and the workers treat some of these to a royal abode and royal jelly, in the futile hope of thus raising a sovereign. In fact, as has been wittily but truly said, " when bees have lost their queen they lose their head'' This close connection of queen and people is reciprocal, for the sovereign who is forcibly separated from her ubjects refuses food, pines away, and speedily dies. It is only in very rare instances (such as those we have mentioned when speaking of the introduction of a stranger-queen) that the workers attack and kill royalty. Queens, on the other hand, are never known to use their stings against their subjects. They reserve them for combats with their equals, thus realising the salutary arrangement, which might have such practically important political conse- quences if adopted in human affairs, " Let those who make the quarrels be the only ones to fight/' The queen, though developed more rapidly than the drones and the workers, enjoys a much longer life than her subjects. In some instances this period has been known to extend to five or even six years ; THE QUEEN-BEE. but her fecundity is said to diminish after her second year, or, if it continues, she will in her old age lay a majority of drone eggs, to the serious weakening of the community. The skilled apiarian, therefore, takes care that every hive shall have a queen of an age when her fertility is greatest. The process of egg-laying begins from two to four days after the flight for mating, depending somewhat on the preparation of cells for that purpose. The queen, on finding comb adapted to her needs, thrusts her head into a cell, apparently to ascertain if it is empty, and of the right depth and size for one of the two different kinds of eggs — those for workers, and those to become drones. Satisfied on these points, she withdraws her head, and, curving herself down- wards, inserts her abdomen, and giving the lower part of her body a half-turn towards the thorax, she expels an egg from her oviduct, and then retires in search of other cells in which to make similar de- posits. She rarely, and only by mistake, lays more than one egg in a cell. If she falls into the error, the worker-bees immediately remove all but one. The examination of each cell by the queen to ascertain its fitness for the two kinds of eggs is an essential point ; for, in the first place, the nature of drone-eggs is radically different from that of those which will produce workers ; and the size of the cells in which the former are hatched is considerably greater than that in which the latter will be de- veloped, nineteen ends of the larger covering a square inch of surface, while twenty-seven of the smaller will occupy the same space. It seems an indisputable fact that the queen has 26 THE HONEY-BEE. the power of laying which of the two kinds of eggs she pleases. The essential difference between the two seems to be, that those which will become drones are not fertilised by spermatozoa just previous to leaving the oviduct, while the worker-eggs are thus specially vivified, and the operation appears to be under volitional control. A further remarkable circumstance is that the rate of egg-laying is also a matter of determination, and not of necessity, on the part of the queen ; for when a transfer has been made from a weak to a strong hive, the number of eggs deposited has been known to vary, within two days, from none to two thousand in twenty- four hours. In the one case the mother- bee knew her colony was not strong enough to keep up the requisite warmth for hatching and developing her progeny ; in the other, she proceeded vigorously with her functions, the further progress of the young being secured by the abundance of the population sufficing to keep up the proper temperature, and to render all needed attention to the larvae in their further development. The ordinary rate of laying, under favourable conditions, varies from 600 to 800 eggs a day ; but, under pressure of specially suitable conditions, from i,OOO to 1,200 are not unfrequently deposited. Langstroth and Von Berlepsch have seen six laid in a minute ; and the latter observer, on supplying a queen with some new empty comb, found after twenty-four hours more than 3,000 eggs had been laid. If this queen on the average got rid of five eggs per minute, the total number just mentioned would have been deposited in ten hours, so that she THE QUEEN-BEE. 27 would have had fourteen hours for rest. The queen kept up her rate for twenty days, in which time she had filled 57,000 cells, and, what is very remarkable, her fecundity is said to have continued for five years, during which period she must have laid nearly a million and a-half of eggs. Dzierzon says, " Most queens, in spacious hives, and in a favourable season, lay 60,000 in a month, and a specially fertile queen, in the four years which she on an average lives, lays over a million eggs." These numbers will give some idea of the immense expenditure of life that is continually going on. To keep up these very great productive energies, it is evident that large quantities of food must be consumed by the mother-bee, and, as we should expect, the amount taken varies in the ratio of the vigour of egg-laying. It sometimes happens that, in the very height of her duties, sufficient cells are not forthcoming as places of deposit for eggs ; and, in that case, the queen leaves some on the combs, or at the bottom of the hive. Strange to say, the worker-bees greedily devour such waifs and strays. In this respect we observe a great difference between ants and bees. Among the latter we do not find that passionate love and care for the eggs and larvae which so strongly mark the former. Other circumstances of a similar kind, to be noted later on, show, on the part of bees, an intense regard for stores rather than progeny, notwithstanding their affection and devo- tion to the mother-bee, whose functions they thus acknowledge as all-important to the race. The egg-laying of the queen goes on more or less 28 THE HONEY-BEE. for nine or ten months of the year, under favouring conditions ; but the season of greatest activity is during April, May, and June. Various circumstances after that time cause a diminution of the number of eggs, till in November, December, and January, as a rule, the queen ceases her motherly functions. CHAPTER IV. THE DRONES. Distinguishing Characteristics — Time of Hatching — Numbers — Pur- poses served by them — Destruction by Workers or other means — Unusual Survival. THE drones are the male population of the bee- community. In general form they are more cylin- drical than the queens or workers. They are shorter than the former, but larger and more robust than the latter. Their colour is of a deeper brown, and they FIG. 8.— A DRONE. are much more hairy, especially at the lower ex- tremity. Their wings are strong, and greater in proportion to the length of their bodies than those of the females or neuters, reaching, indeed, to the full extent of their abdomen. The posterior expansion 30 THE HONEY-BEE. of the lower pair gives a broad backward sweep, and enables the heavy body of the drone to fly with great rapidity, and to rise very freely in the air. Another peculiarity of structure is the vertical enlargement of the compound eyes. By the meeting of these eyes over the brow, the drone is able more readily to see the virgin queen when she issues for her one bridal excursion. Drones have a strong odour, which becomes very perceptible when several are confined together in a box. Their proboscis is not fit for the collection of honey ; moreover they have no recep- tacle for carrying the liquid, and, in fact, show no in- clination even to feed themselves from flowers. They take their nourishment from what is stored in the cells. As Evans accurately and concisely says of them, they " wheel around On heavier wing, and hum a deeper sound. No sharpened sting they boast ; yet, buzzing loud, Before the hive, in threatening circles, crowd The unwieldy drones. Their short proboscis sips No luscious nectar from the wild thyme's lips ; From the lime's leaf no amber drops they steal, Nor bear their grooveless thighs the foodful meal ; On others' toils, in pampered leisure, thrive The lazy fathers of the industrious hive. " This inability to feed themselves from Nature's sources makes them almost unique among the fully developed creatures of the animal world. Their consumption of the stores of the hive is not resented by the workers till the swarming season is over, and what is further remarkable is, that they are permitted to enter without molestation communities other than that in which they were bred, though neuters would be strictly prohibited from such trespassing. THE DRONES. 31 The first drones of the season appear generally about the middle of April, but they are most numer- ously hatched in May and June. The actual number in a hive varies from 500 to 2,000. Only one or two of these will become the mates of as many young queens, and the question is often asked, What can be the use of such an immense superfluity of males ? The best answer that can be given is, that it is extremely important, considering the dangers to which a virgin queen is exposed in her flight from the hive, that there should be no difficulty for her in meeting with a spouse. When drones are scarce, and a very early swarm has issued from a hive, it happens sometimes that the young queen remaining at the head of the stock has to make several flights before finding a mate. As she is liable to be snapped up by birds, or driven away by gusts of wind, or lost through not knowing her own hive, it is manifestly far safer for the supply of drones to be large enough to insure a meeting on the first occasion of her flying. It has been suggested by some bee-keepers that the eggs are fertilised in the cells by the drones, after the manner of the ova of fishes ; but this theory is utterly untenable in view of the fact that much brood is found in the hives at seasons when, as a rule, no drones exist, i.e. in the early spring and late autumn. From a reference to drones in the Troades of Euripides (lines 191 — 195), it would almost seem that the ancient Greeks, five centuries before Christ, had an idea that the male bees were the door-keepers of the hives, and the guardians of the young. We know, however, that this is not the case. 32 THE HONEY-BEE. Again, certain Polish writers have asserted that the drones are the water-carriers of the community ; but this notion is as fanciful and groundless as the preceding idea. A more sensible supposition is that by their numbers the warmth of the hive necessary for the hatching and development of the larvae is promoted, and that, in consequence, more of the workers are freed for honey-getting and pollen-gathering. One objection to this theory has been made on the score that, when there is most need for the heat of the hive to be maintained, viz., in the winter, all the drones are dead ; but the reply to this is, that at that season there are no stores to be collected, and therefore no need for the workers to be liberated from indoor duties. It is certain that bee-keepers who have taken the trouble to catch or to destroy hundreds of drones from their hives, have not found themselves rewarded by a greater amount of produce or by stronger stocks through saving what the murdered drones would have eaten. At the same time, where a honey- harvest is desired, there is little doubt it is well for some control to be exercised over the number of drones hatched in the hive. This can be governed, to a considerable extent, by furnishing the bees with " foundation comb," the rudimentary cells of which are of the size adapted only for workers. Still, there is no doubt of the practical importance of having a good supply of males in the hives during the swarm- ing time. When they are no longer of use, the workers expel them. By many it has been asserted that the drones are stung to death ; but any one who THE DRONES. 33 takes the trouble to watch what goes on in July and August, will see that, for the most part, the neuters seize their brethren by the wing, and drag them from the entrance of the home. If much resistance is made, they will persevere in trying to keep them away ; but, at last, when patience is exhausted, they will bite the wings underneath, and so render them almost powerless. Harassed in these ways, and prevented from taking food from the cells, the drones die of starvation in large numbers. A few may be stung to death. Many will creep to unfrequented parts of the comb, in hope of escaping notice ; and if a side box, or unoccupied back of a wooden hive, be opened for them, they will congregate there. Mr. Henry Taylor mentions in his Bee-Keepers Manual, that, on one occasion, he found as many as 2,200 which had thus clustered in an empty side box. He took them away, and the other bees went to work with more vigour after having been thus relieved of their useless population, as if they were glad to be rid of those who were consumers, but non-producers. In many instances, especially when food-supplies are running short, and are not easily replaceable, the workers will drag out the just emerging drones from their cells, together with pupae and larvae, and will cast them forth to die. If no necessity for swarming occurs, through there being plenty of room in the hive for the extension of the colony, or for any other reason, either no royal cells will be made, or the young princesses will be destroyed as they approach maturity. In this case, an unusually early destruction of the males will occur, as the workers instinctively know there is little D 34 THE HONEY-BEE. use in permitting them to continue alive. Still, some will be allowed to exist, for the sake of other com- munities, as it is now maintained, with much show of reason, that a young queen selects for her consort a drone not belonging to her own hive. The im- portance of this crossing of breed, for keeping up the vigour of the race, is one of the best ascertained facts in natural history. While, then, we cannot suppose the bees to be aware of the benefits to be derived from this " selection before marriage," we see in it one more circumstance indicating the marvellous capabilities of so-called " instinct " — we would prefer very much to say one more proof of the all-pervading superin- tendence of a Divine Mind, which works throughout what we call Nature. We might, indeed, expect that He, without whose supervision not a sparrow alights on the ground in search of its food, would show to our intelligent inquiries equally plain evidence of His universal working, and of His infinitely wise deter- mination of all that has to do with the welfare and the permanence of the various classes of the animal and vegetable worlds. CHAPTER V. THE WORKERS. Distinguishing Characteristics — Supposed Differences of Function among them — Sir John Lubbock's Experiments — Fertile Workers — Length of Life — ' ' Black Bees " — Duties of Workers. THE workers are by far the most numerous, and? in some sense, the most important party in the com- monwealth of bees. They are smaller in size than either queens or drones. Microscopic examination, a. b. FIG. 9.— A WORKER BEE. a. Natural size. b. Magnified. and the fact of their occasionally developing the power of laying eggs, prove that they are really un- developed females. It is hardly correct, therefore, to call them, as has been so often done, neuters. The chief structural differences to be noted in them, as compared with the other two classes in the hive, D 2 36 THE HONEY-BEE. are, the possession of a long proboscis for gathering honey, of receptacles for carrying pollen, of a very formidable straight and barbed sting, and brushes on the legs for clearing different parts of the body from the farina of flowers or from dust. The worker-eggs are deposited by the queen in the smaller-sized cells of the combs, and are the first laid in a new colony, or in the spring of the year. Certain observers have thought they noticed differences in the size of the full-grown workers, and supposed that these variations were connected with diversity of occupations and duties. But as all have their several organs and their whole structure pre- cisely alike, and as little direct evidence of special functions has been adduced, it is tolerably certain that any peculiarities in regard to size must be other- wise explained. Nor is it difficult to discover how these may have been brought about. For, since each pupa leaves behind it some portion of the silken cocoon it had spun, it is clear that after a succession of young bees from the same cells, these must be- come sensibly contracted in extent, so that the later progeny will not have had as much space in which to grow as their elder-born sisters had, and hence are, at least when they emerge, smaller in size. Huber, without reference to the above-mentioned fact, supposed that separate duties were undertaken by special bees, at least so far as the gathering of stores and the care of the young were concerned. Subsequent observations, however, tend to show that the latter office is undertaken by the most recently born young, till they themselves have become strong enough to fly abroad in search of honey and pollen. THE WORKERS. 37 It is said they also see to the making of wax, the building of comb, and the cleansing of the hive, during the first two or three weeks of their life. Some corroboration of this idea is given by the circumstance that, if there be not sufficient room for the extension of a very strong population in their abode, and the conditions for swarming are not satis- factory, the older bees will remain idle in clusters, often outside the hive, leaving to the younger ones the execution of the internal work. Sir John Lubbock has recorded a series of obser- vations which seem to indicate that certain individuals are stationed near the entrances as sentinels. In his most interesting work on Ants, Bees, and Wasps, he says : — "On October 5th I called out the bees by placing some eau-de-Cologne in the entrance, and marked the first three bees that came out. At 5 P.M. I called them out again. About twenty came, including the three marked ones. I marked three more. " October 6. — Called them out again. Out of the first twelve, five were marked ones. I marked three more. "October 7. — Called them out at 7.30 A.M. as before. Out of the first nine seven were marked ones. At 5.30 P.M. called them out again. Out of six, five were marked ones. "Octobers. — Called them out at 7.15. Six came out, all marked ones. " October 9. — Called them out at 6.40. Out of the first ten, eight were marked ones. Called them out at 11.30 A.M. Out of six, three were marked. I marked other three. Called them out at 1.30 P.M. 38 THE HONEY-BEE. Out of ten, six were marked. Called them out at 4.30. Out often, seven were marked. " October 10. — Called them out at 6. 5 A.M. Out of six, five were marked. Shortly afterwards I did the same again, when out of eleven, seven were marked ones. 5.30 P.M. called them out again. Out of seven, five were marked. "October n. — 6.30 A.M. called them out again. Out of nine, seven were marked. 5 P.M. called them out again. Out of seven, five were marked. After this they took hardly any notice of the scents. " Thus in these nine experiments, out of the ninety- seven bees which came out first, no less than seventy- one were marked ones." Many interesting questions connected with the workers remain for future investigation : such, for instance, as whether the same bee returns to the same part of the hive after each foraging expedition ; whether the same bees go out in search of stores day after day, or sometimes take holidays or rest from out-door fatigues, by applying themselves to some of the internal labours of the hive ; whether those who become more or less exhausted from long-continued flights die, for the most part, on their journeys, or come back home to end their lives. One point not known to general readers is, that a bee on each separate going out for stores confines herself to one particular kind of flower for that ex- pedition. That is to say, a worker who begins on violets, will not visit any other flowers than violets before returning to the hive. If lime blossoms are chosen, they will be adhered to. If a bee searching white-clover heads be watched, she will be seen to go THE WORKERS. 39 only to similar sources of supply. This fact may be verified by any one who will take the trouble to notice in field or garden the customs of the hive-bee. It does not seem to be the habit of wild bees thus to confine themselves to particular flowers for each journey they make. The importance of this circum- stance in the case of our domesticated species, and its influence on the vegetable world, will be noted in a later chapter, when we discuss the relation of bees to flowers. We have before alluded to the very remarkable phenomenon occasionally occurring to the great annoyance of the bee-keeper, namely, the develop- ment in a worker of the power of laying eggs, which eggs will produce nothing but drones, so that the population of the hive dwindles, and becomes extinct. Various suggestions have been made as to the reason of this faculty appearing. A very plausible idea is that some of the "royal jelly" is occasionally, and possibly by mistake, given to a larva in the neighbour- hood of a queen-cell, and this stimulating food pro- duces a partial development of laying power. A second possibility is that sometimes a worker-larva in too forward a condition is transferred to a queen- cell, and owing to the difference of treatment not having been begun early enough, an imperfect and nondescript kind of bee results. Some corroboration of this may perhaps be found in a curious fact, which has been several times noted, and published in the British Bee-Journal, viz., the finding of workers hatched in queen-cells. It would be difficult to imagine such an abnormal event, unless unusual circumstances had occurred to the young larva. 40 THE HONEY-BEE. The birth of a fertile worker in a hive is a great misfortune ; for, not merely will the population diminish, and at length altogether fail, from the production of drone-brood only, but, as it is im- possible to distinguish the offending worker, it is difficult to get rid of her. It has been recommended, on the discovery that she exists, to amalgamate the stock with another having a queen. This may answer, but there is a danger that when the battle comes to be fought between the actual sovereign and the fertile worker, who will try to maintain her prerogative, the latter, as the more active, and as possessed of a more formidable sting, may prove victorious. A safer plan, therefore, is to turn out the whole stock from their hive, comb by comb, if the bar-frame system is used, and allow them to return to the old place where the cleared combs may be put to receive them. The fertile worker, never having left the colony, will not know her way back, and so will be happily got rid of, and will probably perish. Her place must, of course, be supplied by an introduced queen, or the stock must be united with another. The age to which the workers live varies accord- ing to the amount of labour they undergo. During the winter and the early spring, when little or no work is done, there is small drain on their vital force, and they may live for six or seven months. In the height of summer, when long days and abundant supplies invite them to many hours of continuous toil, the industrious insects are believed to exhaust themselves very rapidly, and to perish, as if pre- maturely old, in about five or six weeks. It is quite THE WORKERS. 41 evident that the mortality during the middle of the year must be very great, seeing that egg-laying and hatching go on at the rate of several hundreds a day, and during weeks and months in succession : and yet it frequently happens, where room sufficient for the growing stores is provided, no swarm will be thrown off, from which we infer that a period is reached when the birth-rate and death-rate pretty closely approach each other. The older workers are distinguishable from the younger by their deeper and more glossy colour. The grey bloom of youth has been worn off, and frequently their wings, notched or broken in places, betray the veterans in the battle of life, who, amidst rains, hail, and wind, have suffered more or less severely. Some observers have called attention to certain individuals in the community, which have been spoken of as "black bees,"1 and which have been supposed to possess special functions. Von Berlepsch ascertained from his countryman Leuckart that no anatomical differences existed between these and ordinary workers ; and, from subsequent experiments, came to the conclusion that the difference in colour was due to the accidental absence or the loss of the hairs or down with which bees are ordinarily covered. This loss may have occurred through getting smeared with honey, or from stifling, or fright, or creeping constantly through apertures too small to admit their bodies readily. Dzierzon, another great authority, corroborates the above explanation, and 1 This term is also used for all English bees, in distinction from the Ligurian, Cyprian, and other varieties with yellow bands. 42 THE HONEY-BEE. further adds, " as a rule, the glossy black bees are robbers, which have been pursuing their trade for some time." A similar difference in size and colour has been often noticed in the case of drones ; and the ex- planation of their occurrence seems to be that such smaller individuals have been hatched in the cells intermediate between the normal drone and worker varieties, a tier or two of such intermediate cells being frequently made, to shade off the difference of size between the two kinds. The duties undertaken by the workers constitute a series of operations indicating marvellous skill and apparent reasoning power. It is true that what we call " instinct " — a word which merely covers our ignorance — seems to play a large part in the direc- tion of the doings of bees ; but the readiness with which they adapt themselves to circumstances, the expedients they adopt to remedy defects in their dwellings or surroundings, the efforts they make to repair losses and to provide for the continuance of the race, appear to transcend the limits of a power actuated by blind impulse alone. We have spoken of the brooding over and feeding of the larvae, the sealing of the pupae, the cleansing of the newly-hatched young, as the special duties of the workers. All these offices are performed by the most juvenile members of the family, who thus become gradually initiated into the responsibilities of bee-life, and daily gather strength for the next and more extended duties of citizenship. These consist of the gathering of supplies of honey, pollen, and propolis, the elaboration of wax, the making of the THE WORKERS. 43 combs, the storing and sealing up of produce, the cleansing and ventilation of the hive, the guarding of the entrance, and the driving off or slaughter of intruders of various kinds. These various operations are worthy of separate notice, and we will proceed to give some details relating to each. CHAPTER VI. HONEY. Origin — how Collected and Stored — Constitution — Poisonous Honey — Best varieties of Honey — Distances traversed by Bees in search of Honey — Uses. HONEY is mainly derived from the nectar of flowers. We say mainly, because bees are able to make use of many sweet liquids, such as the juices of ripe fruits, the substances constituting what is called "honey- dew," the syrup of sugar, and the solid material of sweetmeats. Still, by far the larger proportion of honey is derived from flowers. By means of its long flexible tongue the bee sucks from the nectaries of various plants the sweet liquid they contain. In an expansion of the gullet, which somewhat resembles the crop of birds, some slight, but important, chemical changes appear to take place, and while a portion of the fluid passes into the true stomach for the nourish- ment of the insect, the rest is regurgitated into a cell of one of the combs. At first the honey thus de- posited is very thin, but by evaporation under the warmth of the hive, a portion of the water passes off, and a process of what apiarians call " ripening " HONEY. 45 goes on, after which the remaining liquid is less liable to fermentation, when extracted from the comb. Honey appears to consist mainly of two kinds of sugar, one of which is closely allied to that contained in the grape, and which by spontaneous change is apt to crystallise in contact with air. The other is uncrystallisable, like the purest treacle, and mingled with it are slight quantities of colouring matter and mucilage. These sugars are somewhat apt to undergo a vinous fermentation, of which advantage has been taken in the manufacture of mead — a drink much used by the inhabitants of these islands in ancient times as a stimulant, and even intoxicant. The taste of honey varies according to the flowers or other sources from which it has been chiefly de- rived. That procured from flowers, especially those of the labiate family — from the clovers, the lime- blossoms, and the heaths — is most esteemed. That which has been derived from sugar-syrup differs but slightly from the liquid of its origin. That procured from what is called honey-dew, or the secretion of various sorts of aphides, is very worthless in. quality, though bees are extremely fond of the liquid. It is a remarkable and unfortunate fact, that the honey collected from certain flowers is, though in- nocuous to bees, more or less injurious to the human body. Xenophon tells us in his Anabasis that his soldiers found many hives in the neighbourhood of Trebizonde, and, after eating of the contents, the men were seized with violent purging and vomiting, stupefaction, and inability to stand. Those who ate little became like men very drunk, and those who ate much, like madmen, and some like dying persons. 46 THE HONEY-BEE. In this condition great numbers lay upon the ground, as if there had been a defeat. None of them died, and in about twenty-four hours they recovered con- sciousness. On the third or fourth day after the seizure they got up, but were like men who had taken powerful physic. Tournefort, when travelling in Asia Minor, recol- lecting these historical circumstances, made careful investigations as to the probabilities of the case. Two kinds of shrubs were pointed out to him as bearing flowers, the honey from which was delete- rious, and the very odour of which is still said to pro- duce headache. These plants were the rhododendron Ponticum, and azalea Pontica, nearly allied species, growing abundantly in that part of the world. Father Lamberti corroborates Xenophon's descrip- tion, by stating that similar effects have been produced by the honey of Colchis, where these shrubs are common. We learn from an account published by Dr. Barton in the American Philosophical Transactions, that, in the autumn of 1790, several fatal cases occurred near Philadelphia, from eating honey collected in the neighbourhood. An official investigation into the circumstances led to the conviction that the source of the mischief lay in the flowers of the kalmia latifolia Still more recently, some persons in New York lost their lives from, as it was supposed, eating honey derived from the flowers of a species of dwarf laurel, common in the vicinity. A further instance of the influence of the kalmia tribe of flowers is given in the fact that honey drawn chiefly from the species latifolia, in New Jersey, is unsaleable, from its intoxicating HONEY. 47 qualities, though the bees themselves thrive pro- digiously upon it. Sometimes the colour is said to indicate the nature of the liquid, that which is mischievous being dis- tinguished by a reddish or brown tinge ; but this is by no means a sure indication of quality, for, in Florida and Carolina, the wild honey having harmful pro- perties is so like in appearance that which is perfectly wholesome, that the hunters at first eat very sparingly of their newly-found treasures, till they have proved, by experimenting on themselves, what its properties are. Again, some " blood-red honey/' found in Abyssinia, is said to be quite free from objectionable elements ; and Linnaeus tells us that the Swedish honey from the heath-flowers is of a reddish hue, but excellent in quality. That obtained in the Highlands of Scotland is occasionally observed to have a brownish tinge, but no ill effects are found to result from the use of it, though some have asserted that it has a soporific influence. There is little doubt that the colours of honey from different localities vary according to the prevalence of flowers most frequently visited by the bees. Its aroma and taste are influenced, as we might suppose, by the same circumstances. As a natural result, we find also that the excellence of the liquid depends much on the season at which it is collected. The primest is the produce of the early summer. That which is stored in spring excels what is gleaned in autumn. The produce of the earlier part of the harvest is better than that which is stored when flowers grow scarce and fruits are ripening. The distances to which bees will travel in search of 48 THE HONEY-BEE. their food-supplies are very astonishing. They have been proved to fly four or five miles to favourite pas- turage. A gentleman, wishing to test this fact, dusted with fine flour his bees as they emerged from a hive. Then driving to a heath five miles distant, which he knew to be much frequented by the insects, he soon found many of those which he had sprinkled at home. Their instinct, indeed, appears to lead them considerably afield, and hence it is of slight use to plant, as recommended by some writers, particular flowers near an apiary. Moreover, unless such flowers are grown for seed purposes, or in very large quantities, the amount of nutriment they will afford is almost inappreciable. Fields where the white or Dutch clover abounds, and heath districts, are, perhaps, the finest sources of honey-supply. Our fruit blossoms of almost all kinds also furnish abundant stores to the busy insects. The uses of honey hardly require to be pointed out. Besides being an agreeable addition to the breakfast or tea-table, as a substitute for butter, it is often very serviceable as a laxative, when taken in moderate quantity. It is frequently employed in medical confections, as a vehicle for the administra- tion of certain drugs ; and its generally wholesome properties have been thoroughly ascertained. Its use for the manufacture of metheglin, or mead, is not now extensive, but in earlier periods of British history this beverage was held in high esteem. CHAPTER VII. MEAD. Nature — Method of Manufacture — Metheglin and Mead — Estimation in former times — Queen Elizabeth's Recipe — Scandinavian liking for Mead. THE sugar of various vegetables is susceptible of alcoholic fermentation ; so from the sugar of malt we get beer, from that of the grape, wine. Honey is, as we have said, a substance containing sugar, which may also be made to yield a vinous liquor. Usually only the washings of drained combs are used up for the manufacture of mead. The saccharine extract is skimmed, strained , and boiled. Then a certain proportion of raisins is added, together with a little ground ginger, and a few bay or laurel leaves for flavouring. A small quantity of brewer's yeast sets up the necessary fermentation, and after the liquor has been put into a barrel, and allowed to " work " for two or three days, it is bunged up, and at the end of six months may be bottled, and soon afterwards will be fit for use. Of course, run honey may be used for the purpose, but its employment is a more expensive mode of manufacture. E 50 THE HONEY-BEE. Properly speaking, the word " metheglin " was applied to the superior sorts of mead, the two beverages being related much in the same way as effervescing bottled cider and the ordinary draught cider. Mead-making seems anciently to have been con- sidered a matter of great interest and importance, and we are told by old authors that the Court brewer of this beverage for Princes of Wales was the physician of the household, and ranked eleventh in point of dignity. ^Ethelstan, King of Kent in the tenth century, on paying a visit to his relative vEthelfleda, expressed his satisfaction that there was no- stint of mead. According to an antique rule of the Welsh Court, there were " three things which must be communicated to the king before they were imparted to any other person. First, every sentence of the judge; second, every new song; and third, every cask of mead." Queen Elizabeth was so fond of this beverage as to have it made regularly every year ; and her recipe has been preserved to our own day. It may interest our readers to give it entire : " Take of sweetbriar leaves and thyme each one bushel, rosemary half a bushel, bay leaves one peck. Seethe these ingredients in a furnace full of water [containing probably not less than 120 gallons], boil for half an hour ; pour the whole into a vat, and when cooled to a proper temperature [about 75° Fahr.], strain. Add to every six gallons of the strained liquor a gallon of fine honey, and work the mixture together for half an hour. Repeat the stirring occasionally for two days ; then boil the liquor afresh, skim it till it becomes MEAD. 51 clear, and return it to the vat to cool. When reduced again to a proper temperature [about 80° Fahr.], pour it into a vessel from which fresh ale or beer has just been emptied; let it work for three days, and then barrel it. When fit [after fermentation] to be stopped down, tie up a bag of beaten cloves and mace [half an ounce of each], and suspend it in the liquor from the bung-hole. When it has stood for half a year, it will be fit for use/' Mead remained in favour long after the introduc- tion of malt liquors, and the northern inhabitants of Europe drank it habitually till comparatively modern times. Even so late as Dryden's day, it would ap- pear to have been in much more common use than now : for he .says of its employment for tempering strong wines : — " T' allay the strength and hardness of the wine, Let with old Bacchus new metheglin join." It was probably the liquor called by Ossian the joy and strength of skulls, and which so much delighted his heroes. It was the ideal nectar of the Scandinavian nations, which they expected to drink in heaven, using the skulls of their enemies for goblets, while they were to regale themselves also on boars' flesh. So we read in Penrose's Carousal of Odin :— " Fill the honeyed beverage high, Fill the skulls, 'tis Odin's cry ! Heard ye not the powerful call, Thundering through the vaulted hall ? Fill the meath, and spread the board, Vassals of the grisly lord ! — The feast begins, the skull goes round, Laughter shouts — the shouts resound." E 2 52 THE HONEY-BEE. A quantity of mead sufficient for the very mundane tastes of these celestial heroes was sup- posed to be daily supplied by a goat, called Heidruna, of whom Cottle says : — " Whose spacious horn would fill the bowl That raised to rapture Odin's soul ; And ever drinking — ever dry — Still the copious stream supply." CHAPTER VIII. WAX. Origin — Production — Chemical Constitution — Comb Building — De- tailed Description — Amount of Wax in Hives — Commercial Value — Properties. IT was long thought that wax was a product derived, like honey, immediately from flowers. Not only did popular ignorance suppose that the pellets of pollen carried on the thighs of the worker-bees FIG. io.— A WORKER BEE, SHOWING THE SCALES OF WAX. consisted of this substance , but even some authors on apiculture fell into the same error. It is now ascertained with certainty that wax is a sort of animal fat, elaborated from honey by certain internal organs of the bee. It exudes in a liquid form from 54 THE HONEY-BEE. sacklets on the under side of each of the four inter- mediate ventral segments of the abdomen. There are two of these pockets to each segment, one on either side of the carina or elevated central part. They are trapeziform in shape, and impart the same form to the tiny plates which emerge from them. On reaching the air the liquid thickens, and dries in flakes like fish-scales. The secretion of wax is carried on by the workers only, queens and drones being destitute of the apparatus necessary for the purpose. No direct communication has been traced between the stomach and the wax-sacks, but it has been con- jectured by Hunter that the secretion is effected by the network of vessels lining the receptacles as a membrane covered with hexagonal cells, somewhat like the second stomach of ruminating quadrupeds. Chemically considered, wax consists entirely of carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen ; and, as before men- tioned, is ' elaborated wholly from honey. Some authors have maintained that pollen is necessary for its production, but this is the case probably only indirectly ; that is to say, the nitrogenous constituent of pollen may be necessary for the nutriment and stimulation of the secreting organs. It certainly does not enter into the constitution of the wax itself. The quantity of honey required for this process of wax-making is very large. It is generally believed, in fact, to be from fifteen to twenty times the weight of the material derived from it ; in other words, for every ounce of wax produced, at least a pound of honey is consumed by the bees. During the oxygena- tion of so large a quantity of saccharine matter, much WAX. 55 heat is evolved — a fact frequently noticed when comb- building is going on rapidly in a hive. When wax is required for the abode of a fresh swarm, or for filling up vacant spaces with comb, the bees hang in festoons or chains, crossing the hive in different directions. Remaining almost motion- less for about twenty-four hours, the wax-makers proceed with their business. Then, as soon as the V FIG. ii. — FESTOONS OF BEES SUSPENDED FROM THE ROOF OF THE HIVE. little scales are of the proper consistency, they are withdrawn by the hind-feet of the bee, and carried between the fore-legs to the mouth. There, worked up with a small quantity of saliva, the substance is softened ready for use, and being conveyed away by those who have prepared it, and deposited in small masses, it furnishes the materials from which the comb-builders do their share of the duties of the hive. Possibly some of the individuals of the lower parts of the festoons, or clusters, may pass up their portions of wax to those above them for transmission 56 THE HONEY-BEE. to the top of the hive ; but the fact is not thoroughly ascertained. Evans graphically says : — " Lo, filtered through yon flutterer's folded mail, Clings the cooled wax, and hardens to a scale. Swift, at her well-known call, the ready train (For not a buzz boon Nature breathes in vain) Spring to each falling flake, and bear along Their glossy burdens to the builder-throng." It often happens that the fine scales fall by acci- dent, or perhaps, when superabundant in quantity, on to the floor-boards of hives, and it does not appear, from our observation, that those bees who happen to come upon these little portions of material carry them up for employment in cell-formation. The wax is used in comb-building, and the sub- ject is one of great interest on many accounts, but especially from the following considerations : the nature of the material ; the organs by which it is produced ; the implements with which it is fashioned into shape ; the manner in which the work is done ; the form of the cells, the mathematical characters of which are most surprising ; their different sizes and shapes, according to the purposes for which they are destined ; their perfect adaptation to the needs of the bee community. With regard to the nature of the material, in addi- tion to the facts already mentioned, we may note that it is a substance easily moulded, especially when exposed to a gentle heat, such as is generated in a hive. It is light, so as to add little to the weight of the contents which will be stored in the cells. It is also a very slow conductor of heat, a matter of great WAX. 57 importance both in summer and in winter. For, if it readily both absorbed and radiated heat, the temper- ature would, in the former season, become too high ; while, in the winter, too great effort, and a large additional amount of food, would be needed by the bees to keep up the temperature of the hive to a point of safety for its inhabitants. Again, wax is a material which, by means of propolis (of which we shall presently speak), admits of being fastened in position so securely as to be able to bear a great weight of brood, honey, and bee-bread, in the cells. The organs by which wax is secreted, and the implements with which it is fashioned, will be de- scribed fully in the chapter devoted to the physiology and anatomy of the bee ; but we may say here that they are exceedingly simple, and that it is wonderful such beautiful work can be accomplished by means of them. But the manner in which comb-building is done is so marvellous, that it merits a detailed description. It is to Huber that we are indebted for the full exposition of this subject, and we cannot do better than quote his account of the process, as given by Kirby and Spence. We must premise, however, that the great naturalist thought there were two distinct classes of workers, the one of which he called the wax-makers ; the other, the nurse-bees. Observations continued since his day have rendered it certain that this is a mistaken distinction. As a general rule the care of the young devolves, as we have already said, on the most recently hatched of the community, who are unfit, for some days after emerging from the THE HONEY-BEE. cell, to take distant flight in search of stores from flowers. The older and stronger workers, on the other hand, go abroad for supplies, and then, on their return, secrete whatever wax is needed in the economy of the hive. FIG. 12. — CLUSTER OF BEES. The process of comb-building is described by Huber as follows : — "The wax-makers having taken a due portion of honey or sugar, from either of which wax can be elaborated, suspend themselves to each WAX. 59 other, the claws of the fore-legs of the lowermost being attached to those of the hind pair of the uppermost, and form themselves into a cluster, the exterior layer of which looks like a kind of curtain. This cluster consists of a series of festoons or gar- lands, which cross each other in all directions, and in which most of the bees turn their back upon the observer. , . . The wax-makers remain immovable for about twenty-four hours, during which period the formation of wax takes place, and thin laminae of this material may be generally perceived under their abdomen. One of these bees is now seen to detach itself from one of the central garlands of the cluster, to make a way amongst its companions to the middle FIG. 13.— WAX-WORKER COMMENCING A COMB. of the vault, or top of the hive, and by turning itself round to form a kind of void, in which it can move itself freely. It then suspends itself to the centre of the space which it has cleared, the diameter of which is about an inch. It next seizes one of the laminae of wax with a pincer formed by the posterior meta- tarsus (last joint of the leg), and tibia (last joint but two), and drawing it from beneath the abdominal segments, one of the anterior legs takes it with its claws and carries it to the mouth. This leg holds the lamina with its claws vertically, the tongue rolled up serving for a support, and by elevating it or depressing it at will, causes the whole of its 60 THE HONEY-BEE. circumference to be exposed to the action of its man- dibles (or jaws), so that the margin is soon gnawed into pieces^ which drop as they are detached into the double cavity, bordered with hairs, of the mandibles (jaws). These fragments, pressed by others newly separated, fall on one side of the mouth, and issue from it in the form of a narrow riband. They are then presented to the tongue, which impregnates them with a frothy liquor like a bouilli. During this operation the tongue assumes all sorts of forms ; sometimes it is flattened like a spatula, then like a trowel, which applies itself to the riband of wax. At other times it resembles a pencil terminating in a point. After having moistened the whole of the riband, the tongue pushes it to make it re-enter the mandibles, but in an opposite direction, where it is worked up anew. The liquor mixed with the wax communicates to it a whiteness and opacity which it had not before ; and the object of this mixture, which did not escape the observation of Reaumur, is, doubtless, to give it that ductility and tenacity which it possesses in its perfect state. " The foundress-bee — the name which this first be- ginner of a comb deserves — next applies these pre- pared parcels of wax against the vault (or top of a frame) of the hive, disposing them with the point of her mandibles in the direction which she wishes them to take; and she continues these manoeuvres until she has employed the whole lamina that she had separated from her body, when she takes a second, proceeding in the same manner. She gives herself no care to compress the molecules of wax which she has heaped together. She is satisfied if they adhere to each WAX. 61 other. At length she leaves her work, and is lost in the crowd of her companions. Another succeeds and resumes the employment, then a third. All follow the same plan of placing their little masses, and if any one, by chance, gives them a contrary direction, another coming removes them to their proper place. " The result of all these operations is a mass or little wall of wax, with uneven surfaces, five or six lines (twelfths of an inch) long, two lines high, and half a line thick, which descends perpendicularly. In this first work is no angle nor any trace of the figure of the cells. It is a simple partition in a right line without any inflection. " The wax-makers having thus laid a foundation of a comb, are succeeded by the nurse-bees [here Huber is wrong1], which are alone competent to model and perfect the work. The former are the labourers, who convey the stone and mortar ; the latter the masons, who work them up into the form which the intended structure requires. One of these bees now places itself horizontally on the vault (or bar-frame) of the hive, its head corresponding to the centre of the mass or wall which the wax-makers have left, and which is to form the partition of the comb into two opposite assemblages of cells ; and with its mandibles (jaws), rapidly moving its head, it moulds in that side of the wall a cavity which is to form the base of one of the cells, to the diameter of which it is equal. When it has worked some minutes it departs, and another takes its place, deepening the cavity, heightening its lateral margins by heaping up the wax to right and left, by means of its teeth and 1 See remark immediately preceding the quotation. THE HONE Y-BEE. fore-feet, and giving to them a more upright form. More than twenty bees successively employ them- selves in this work. " When arrived at a certain point, other bees begin on the yet untouched and opposite side of the mass, and commencing the bottom of two cells, are in turn relieved by others. While still engaged in this labour the wax-makers return, and add to the mass, augmenting its extent in every way, the builders again continuing their operations. After having worked the bottom of the cells of the first row into their proper forms, they polish them, and give them their finish, while others begin the outline of a new series. " The cells themselves, or prisms, which result from the reunion and meeting of the sides, are next constructed. These are engrafted on the borders of the cavities hollowed in the mass. The bees begin them by making the contour of the bottoms, which is at first unequal, of equal height. Thus all the margins of the cells offer an uniformly level surface from their first origin, and until they have acquired their proper length. The sides are heightened in an order analogous to that which the insects follow in finishing the bottom of the cells, and the length of these tubes is so perfectly proportioned that there is no observable inequality between them." Thus writes the great Swiss observer of bees. Without quoting at greater length from his pub- lished observations, we may give some additional particulars relating to the geometrical characters of honey-comb. WAX. 63 The cells of the first row laid down are pentagonal in shape. This gives them a stronger attachment to the hive than if they had had the hexagonal figure of the succeeding rows. But no form besides the six- sided prism would have answered all the conditions of the problem " how with the least expenditure of material to secure the greatest available space with the best arrangement for the purposes to be served." Approached from the purely theoretical side, the question has been investigated by mathematicians. FIG. 14. — DIAGRAM OF CELLS. It requires no great acumen to determine that a hexagon of some sort is the geometrical figure which must be adopted. An equilateral triangle would make a very unsuitable abode for an insect with a V FIG. 15.— SUPPOSED CIRCULAR CELLS. nearly round body. A square cell would hardly be more convenient. A series of circles would, of course, leave interstices between them, causing a useless expenditure of space, material, time and strength. 64 THE HONEY-BEE. A further difficulty would arise with regard to the storage of the honey, which finds points of attachment in the angles of a hexagon, and so is less liable to run out of the cells. The next matter then to settle is, the magnitude of the angles at which the sides of the hexagon should slope towards each other, so as to be the most advantageous. Reaumur put the problem in mathematical language before M. Kb'nig, FIG. 16 — ARRANGEMENT OF CELLS. a skilful geometrician, thus : — " To determine by cal- culations what ought to be the angle of a hexagonal cell, with a pyramidal bottom, formed of three similar and equal rhomboid plates, so that the least matter possible might enter into its construction." The result of his investigations was that the angles of the rhombs must be 109° 26' and 70° 34'. Cramer, professor of mathematics in the University of Geneva, also under- took the problem. His calculations, made on some- what different principles from Konig's, gave for the angles 109° 28' 16", and 70° 31' 44". Maraldi, a third WAX. 6; mathematician, assuming the equality of the angles of the trapezia forming the sides of the hexagon adjacent to the rhombs and those of the rhombs themselves, and that the solid angle at the apex of the pyramid, composed of equal obtuse angles, is pre- cisely equal to each of the three angles at the base, also composed of three equal obtuse angles, came to the conclusion that the angles must be 109° 28' and 70° 32'. These three sets of results, so remarkably accord- ant, when we consider the minuteness of the differ- ences between them, in figures so small as the actual honey-comb cells, show the closest correspondence to the actual measurements of the work of the bees. Maraldi found the angles of the latter to be 1 10° and 70°, as nearly as could be ascertained. We have dwelt at some length upon this point, because it illu- strates, in a most marvellous manner, the power of that inborn faculty we call instinct, which arrives, without training, at results so precisely agreeing with those of the highest efforts of our intellectual reasonings. To the devout mind, the conclusion is inevitable that Divine Wisdom is the inspiring force which energizes the mental operations of the bees in their cell-building. A further advantage of the actual shape of the honey-comb prisms is that, thereby, strength is com- bined with economy. No other form would so effici- ently have carried the heavy weights constantly stored in the forms of honey, brood, and bee-bread. The bottoms and sides of the cells are made of wax as thin as a sheet of writing-paper ; but as walls of this thinness at the entrances would break down F 66 THE HONEY-BEE. under the weight of the constantly passing insects, the margin at the opening of each cell is made four or five times thicker than the walls. Then, as the cells are lengthened, this thickness is reduced, always remaining the same, however, at the actual margins. Dr. Barclay also discovered that, though the tenuity of the divisions is so great, each, in point of fact, consists FIG. 17.— DIAGRAM SHOWING SLOPE OF CELLS. of two distinct layers agglutinated together. This gives, again, an increase of strength, as any practical builder would know who, in his " bressummers," adopts the same method of attaining lightness and power of sustaining great weights. The actual size of the cells in a hive varies con- siderably, as we might expect. Without regarding those for queen-progeny, we should anticipate that WAX. 67 those in which young drones are to be developed would be considerably larger than those prepared for workers. This is, indeed, the case. But as an abrupt change from the one kind to the other would be impossible without waste, the bees prudently gradu- ate the difference by interposing a suitable series of intermediate sizes, whose bottoms, of course, have to depart from the normal conditions, and sometimes consist of two rhomboids and two hexagons, varying in size and form, and corresponding with four, instead of three, opposite cells. In these, stores are often found, instead of brood. If eggs are laid in them, they are generally those which will develop into males, and the space for development being smaller than usual, the drones occupying such cells are not so large as the average size. As a rule, the hexagonal ends of twenty-seven worker cells, or nineteen drone cells, occupy a surface of one square inch. All the cells lie not quite horizontally, but sloping slightly downwards from the mouth towards the bases. This arrange- ment is designed to prevent the honey from easily flowing out. As the cells are filled with the liquid, the lower edge of each is first raised, and, in due time, the whole of the once open end is sealed over with a coating of wax mixed with a little propolis. This covering not only keeps the contents from run- ning out, but prevents fermentation or candying, from contact with the air. Each comb consists of a double layer of cells, back to back, and forming a sort of flat cake. At first this is lenticular in shape, the middle part being advanced rather more rapidly than the ends. F 2 68 THE HONEY-BEE. It is a curious fact that the bees do not, on being put into a hive, or when working in a bell-glass, begin several combs at once ; but, having thoroughly laid the foundation of one, and having made some pro- gress with this, they then start one on each side of the first, and, after a time, one on the outer side of each of the last begun. Usually, therefore, the combs hang in parallel series. If any obstruction occurs, a deviation from the normal direction takes place, but, FIG. 18. — ARRANGEMENT OF COMBS IN A BELL-GLASS. manifest intelligence is shown in surmounting the difficulty, whatever it may be. At first, the substance of the cells is of a dull, semi- transparent, white colour, soft, and very brittle. After a time, a yellow tinge spreads over the comb, and, with age, this hue deepens to brown, and if some years old, becomes almost black. The colour, there- fore, furnishes a tolerably safe guide as to the age of comb. The darkening seems due, partly to a chemical change from contact with the air, but still more to the constant traffic of the bees over it, and its getting smeared with dirt and propolis. WAX. 69 It occasionally happens that, owing to a great in-flow of honey, the weight of the combs endangers their security, and the bees, seeing the danger of their breaking down, resort to a most clever method of rendering their treasures safe. Gnawing away a small part of the topmost row of the combs on one side, they lay a broader foundation, and then, with a strongly glutinous mixture of wax and propolis, they fasten afresh the upper cells to their points of attach- ment. Having completed one side, they then proceed in the same way with the other, till they are satisfied of the firmness of the whole structure. Again, if the supply of food outruns the capacity of their store-houses as first made, they will often lengthen the cells, till, especially in the case of supers, they reach the length of even two inches — more than twice the normal size. The queen-cells are remarkably distinguished from those for workers or drones, in respect to size, direc- tion, shape, and amount of material. They occupy FIG. 19 — THE QUEEN CELL. at least as much space as half a dozen ordinary cells. They are directed downwards, instead of lying hori- zontally. They are irregularly oval or pyriform in 70 THE HONEY-BEE. shape, and are made up of a sort of mosaic of wax, which material, so sparingly used elsewhere, seems lavished on the royal nurseries. The reasons for this are, probably, to secure the young queens from danger while passing through the larval and pupal conditions, and to keep up the warmth necessary for FIG. 20. — QUEEN CELLS IN SITU. their more rapid development. Wax being a very bad conductor of heat, the thick walls prevent the chilling of the brood, and, at the same time, allow of considerable clustering of nurse-bees, and consequent generation of warmth, without the danger of the cells being broken down by the pressure. Bees-wax forms a not unimportant article of commerce. From Germany, Greece, Cyprus, and still more largely from North America, we derive what is needed to make up the deficiency in our WAX. 71 home production of it. Its uses are numerous. For household purposes, especially for polishing furniture, for some varnishes and unguents, for candles and matches, for modelling, particularly in dentistry, it is consumed in great quantities. Since the introduction of paraffin and similar substances for lighting purposes, the amount used for candles has diminished, though the demand for it in other directions does not appear to have fallen off. Bee-keepers now use it greatly for "foundation-comb." CHAPTER IX. POLLEN, OR BEE-BREAD. Origin — Collection — Conveyance — Deposition — Quantity Stored— Uses — Artificial Substitutes. HONEY consists, like most saccharine substances, of carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen. It is fitted, there- fore, as a food to supply the waste in the body of the bee produced by respiration ; but for the nourishment of muscular tissue, and so for the growth of the larviE and pupae, some nitrogenous material is re- quired. This is obtained by the insects from the pollen of flowers. This substance, we need hardly say, is the fertilising powder necessary for the pro- duction of seeds in plants, and growing on the anthers, or tops of the stamens, within the corolla of most flowers. The workers in search of honey rub off this farina with their hairy bodies and with the bristles of their legs. Then, on taking wing, they clear it off by rapid combings of their limbs ; and rolling the powder into little pellets, they deposit it in pockets situated on the outside of the middle joint of the hindmost pair of legs. When filled, these receptacles with their loads appear like coloured balls on the laden workers. Sometimes the bees get POLLEN, OR BEE-BREAD. 73 so covered with pollen from plants containing large quantities of it, that they cannot clear themselves of the powder till they return to their homes ; and, in some cases, they need the assistance of their fellows to brush off what adheres too tightly, or in places not easily reached by the individual herself. When the pollen-laden bee has reached the combs, she searches for a cell already containing the same [ FIG 21. — HIND-LEG OF A BEE. material as that she is carrying, or which is suitable for her purpose. Then, having found what she wants, she inserts her hindmost legs into the cell, and, by a dexterous movement, detaches the little balls, and, on retiring, gives herself some vigorous shakes, as if to clear herself of still adherent flower-dust. Then another worker, whose duty it is to see to the proper storing of the bee-bread, rams it down with her head into a compact mass, and the process goes on till the cell is filled. No particular portion of the combs seems selected 74 THE HONEY-BEE. for the deposit of this substance, nor is it ascertained that what is procured from any particular kind of plant is placed apart ; but a mixture of various pollens appears to be made, though during the pre- valence of any special flower yielding the material, certain colours predominate, as might be expected, in the stores of bee-bread. The quantities collected by a prosperous colony must be very great. Some writers put the amount at twenty pounds in the course of a season. The carrying in of this produce is usually a sure sign that there is brood in the hive. The absence of a supply going in generally raises the suspicion that no young are developing, owing to the loss of the queen. The amount seen to be carried in is, therefore, a rough indication of the prosperity of the community. In early seasons its collection begins as soon as February. During April and May, i.e. in the height of the blossoming time, the largest quantities are stored ; and this period corresponds with the most rapid and extensive increase of the population of the hive. The nurse-bees take some portion of the pollen immediately it is brought in, and, working it up with honey and saliva, prepare the food for the larvae. In some cases, they partially digest it before giving it to the young brood. It is believed that the queen, when laying her thousands of eggs, needs copious supplies of nitrogenous nutriment, and that her attendants diligently feed her with honey mixed with bee-bread, which has been partly prepared in their stomachs for quick assimilation in the body of their monarch. POLLEN, OR BEE-BREAD. 75 When plant-blossoms are scarce, the skilful apiarian supplies his stock with some substitute for pollen. Dr. Dzierzon was the first to propose fine rye-meal for this purpose ; and he was led to make the suggestion by having noticed, that, in the early spring, before flowers were blooming in sufficient quantity to satisfy the wants of his bees, they entered a neighbouring mill, and returned to their hives well powdered with rye-flour. Pea-meal has been tried with much success for this purpose. The method of using it recom- mended is to put the meal into a soup-plate, or shallow dish or trough, among shavings. The bees may be enticed to take to it by a little honey placed on the rim of the receptacle, or by showing a few individuals the way to it. When once the treasure has been discovered by the workers, they make abundant visits to it. They, indeed, prefer the pea- flour to the old stores of bee-bread remaining in the hive ; but, so soon as the natural supplies of the plant-blossoms are sufficient in amount for the wants of the brood, the substitute is quite neglected. In extracting honey from combs by pressure, it is well to avoid any admixture of the bee-bread, as its taste is by no means a pleasant addition to the flavour of the sweet liquid. By using any of the " extractor " machines now in vogue, all danger of having the pollen mingled with the honey is avoided. CHAPTER X. PROPOLIS. Derivation of Word — Sources — Nature — Purposes — Quantity Collected — Adaptation of Materials to Wants of Bees. ANOTHER substance carried in, and largely used by the bees, is an exceedingly sticky material called propolis, from two Greek words signifying " before the city," as it was observed, in early times, that it was employed in strengthening the outworks of their fortress-home, or, at least, in firmly securing the rim of their hives to their floor-boards. It was formerly a matter of considerable discussion whether this substance was a natural vegetable pro- duct, or whether it was elaborated, as wax is. There is now little doubt that it is chiefly a sort of resin derived from plants, and especially from the leaf-buds of certain kinds, like the horse-chestnut, the alder, birch, willow, and hollyhock. Huber, to whom we are indebted for so many interesting and careful observations on apiculture, tried the experiment of placing in pots branches of the poplar, before the buds had opened, and these he put near his apiary. The bees, settling on them, separated the folds of the largest buds, extracted the resinous matter in PROPOLIS. 77 threads, loaded it on their thighs, as they do pollen, and carried it to their hives. In the spring one may often notice a loud humming round the foliage of deodars, firs, and other coniferae ; and some wonder may, at first, be felt as to what the busy insects can want from such absolutely honeyless trees. When we remember the turpentinous exudations which are so abundant in these cone-bearers, all difficulty dis- appears. It is for supplies of propolis the workers are searching. Evans says on this subject : — " With merry hum the willow's copse they scale, The fir's dark pyramid, or poplar pale ; Scoop from the alder's leaf its oozy flood, Or strip the chestnut's resin -coated bud, Skim the light tear that tips Narcissus' ray, Or round the hollyhock's hoar fragrance play." It is most probable that, with the resinous sub- stances collected from trees, they knead up a certain proportion of wax, to increase the tenacity. The resulting product is one of extraordinarily glutinous quality. With it the bees stop every chink and crack and cranny in their abodes. With it they stick down skeps to floor-boards, fasten, if they can, frames to the top of bar-hives, firmly fix the combs to their points of attachment, strengthen weak places in their dwellings, and, in some cases, where glass has been inserted in the walls of hives for observation pur- poses, the panes are found completely coated with propolis, so as to exclude the light. In colour, this cement is greenish yellow, darkening with age to brown. Its odour is balsamic and some- what powerful, resembling that of storax. It was formerly supposed to possess medicinal properties, 78 THE HONEY-BEE. and was kept in the shop of the apothecary. When smeared on the fingers, it is very difficult of removal. Soap has no effect upon it ; water fails to wash it off; but spirits of wine readily dissolve it, and are the most easy and effectual means of getting it off the skin. Bees usually choose the middle of the day for gathering this substance, as the warmth of the air, by softening the resinous material, facilitates the obtaining of it from the trees, and prevents its too speedy hardening before it reaches the hives. Some- times, indeed, the resin becomes so firm in consistency by the time the collectors of it get home, that they require the assistance of their fellow-workers to detach it from their thighs. One very remarkable use to which propolis is occasionally put by the bees, is for the covering up of mice, snails, frogs, or other intruders, whose ex- pulsion is impossible, or who have died after entering the hives. Reaumur relates that, on one occasion, he observed a snail thus glued down to a piece of glass in one of his hives ; and, in another instance, where a slug had been stung to death, and was far too large for removal by the insects, these clever sanitarians completely enveloped the mollusc with a coating of propolis-varnish, to prevent the emanation of any noxious vapours when decomposition set in. It was, in fact, a distinct instance of embalming. Huish mentions that a mouse was similarly treated by one of his stocks of bees. The quantity of propolis collected is sometimes very large, particularly where spaces are left at the top, sides, or bottoms of bee-dwellings. At present, PROPOLIS, 79 this substance has not been turned to any serviceable human use. In reviewing these various products gathered or elaborated by bees, we cannot fail to be struck with the marvellous adaptation of different materials to the wants of the community, the skill displayed in the application of them to the general purposes of the commonwealth ; and, above all, the wondrous suitability of means to ends, shown by the workers of the hive. If we refuse to allow the possession of reason to these extraordinary insects, we must admit the existence in them of some faculty almost more to be admired ; and, in any case, we can but bow in reverence before the all-comprehensive Divine wisdom and goodness, which have endowed creatures so small with powers so surprising — which have made them subservient to human needs or comfort, and which have enabled the bees to work even to better advantage under the tutelage of man, than when left to their natural habits and surroundings. CHAPTER XI. PHYSIOLOGY OF THE BEE. Nervous System — The Head — Eyes — Compound and Simple — Uses and Powers — Sir John Lubbock's Experiments — The Antennae — Structure and Uses — Mouth — Detailed Description. BEFORE proceeding to detail the most important facts connected with the internal economy of the hive, it will be desirable to describe with some mi- nuteness the physiology and anatomy of the inhabit- ants, so that it may be more easy to understand the means by which various processes are accomplished, and the most important events of the community are brought about. Much that has been hitherto said will become more readily comprehended by attention to the structure of the various organs we are now about to describe. It will hardly be necessary to enter into a more minute account, than wre have already given, of the egg, the larva, and the pupa. We shall, therefore, confine ourselves to detailing the most interesting points in the physiology of the perfect insect. It has been noted, in an earlier chapter, that the members of this division of the animal kingdom are characterised by having three very distinct segments PHYSIOLOGY OF THE BEE. 81 in their bodies — the head, the thorax, and the abdo- men. As the nature and arrangement of the nervous system forms one of the soundest bases of classifica- tion in the highest of the three kingdoms in nature, FIG. 22.— NERVOUS SYSTEM OF PRIVET HAWK-MOTH. we shall first direct attention, in each case, to this all- important matter of detail. The general arrange- ment of the nerve-matter in the sub-kingdom G 82 THE HONEY-BEE. Articulata, to which all true insects belong, is that of a double cord, with knot-like protuberances, called ganglia, at more or less regular intervals. The two filaments are in some cases close together : in others, quite distinct ; while the larger nerve-masses — the previously mentioned ganglia — also vary in juxta- position, according to the greater or less importance FIG. 23. — NERVOUS SYSTEM OF LARVA OF BEE. of the functions they regulate. In the illustration of the larva of Sphinx ligustri (the privet hawk- moth) (Fig. 22), the nervous cord is nearly uniform through- out its length, though at its upper portion a separation takes place into three loops. The ganglia also occur at almost equal distances. A very similar disposition of the nerve-structure is seen in the larval condition of the bee ; but we may note the absence of loops, the larger development of the cephalic masses, without PHYSIOLOGY OF THE BEE. 83 the separation of their filaments to inclose the gullet together with a more plainly-defined distance be- tween the cords which run parallel through the rest of the body. FIG. 24. — NERVOUS SYSTEM OF PERFECT INSECT. In the perfect insect we observe some decided modifications to have taken place. The head por- tions have grown proportionally larger, and show a loop for the passage of the oesophagus, while two large ganglia in the thorax indicate the seat of im- pressions and impulses connected with the organs of motion — wings and legs — which had no existence in G 2 8 -j. THE HONEY-BEE. the larval condition. As the functions of the abdo- minal region, viz., those of digestion and circulation chiefly, remain much the same in the different states through which the individual passes after the hatch- ing of the egg, we find, as we might expect, little change in the nervous system of the posterior segment of the body. From each nerve-mass will be observed filaments branching on either side to the outer edges of the body. By means of these communication is kept up between all parts of the frame. Sensations are received and conveyed to the sensorial organs, and return-stimuli are sent to the organs whose move- ments depend for regulation on the different ganglia. This branching of the nerve-fibre is directly propor- tional to the variety and force of the several functions subserved by the various structures to which they proceed. The Head. — We will now describe in some detail the structure and functions of the highly-important organs contained in the anterior segment, or head. And first in order let us take the Eyes. — On either side of the head may be observed an oval lobe, convexly rounded and immovable, brown in colour, covered with a horny tunicle, and exhibiting to the unassisted eye a vast number of distinct points. These points, under a high-power magnifying-glass, are seen to be facets, hexagonal in shape, so as to occupy all available space, without interstices, and each connected with a minute tube and a thread of nerve-matter leading to the cephalic ganglia or brain. These compound eyes, as they are called, are common to most true insects. They may PHYSIOLOGY OF THE BEE. 85 be easily seen in flies, bluebottles, moths, butterflies, &c. The numbers of the facets vary greatly in different families of the Articulata. In the common house-fly there are, it is stated, about 4,000 ; in the white cabbage-butterfly, 17,000 ; in the dragon-fly, 24,000. It has been computed that in each com- pound eye of the bee there are about 3,500 of them. FIG. 25. — EYES OF A BEE, GREATLY MAGNIFIED. Behind the horny covering, or cornea, which con- sists of two plano-convex lenses, is a layer of dark pigment, which gives the characteristic colour to these eyes. This is pointed like the neck of a vase, and serves the purpose of the iris in the higher animals. This is traversed by a minute aperture or pupil, through which the rays pass by a longer conical lens to the optic nerve. A vertical section shows that each ocellus (or little eye] is the frustum of a pyramid, the large end or base of which is bounded by the cornea, while the other and pointed end 86 THE HONEY-BEE. terminates against an expansion of the optic nerve. The eminent physiologist, Dr. W. B. Carpenter, says, in describing the minute structure of these organs : " The interior of this pyramid is occupied by a trans- parent substance, which represents the vitreous humour (of the eyes of vertebrates), and the pyramids are separated from each other by a layer of dark pigment, which completely incloses them, save at the pupillary apertures, and also at a corresponding set of apertures at their smaller ends, where the pigment is perforated by the fibres of the optic nerve, of which one proceeds to each separate eye. Each facet, or ' corneule ' of the common cornea, is convex FIG. 26.— FACETS OF EYE OF A BEE. on both its surfaces, and thus acts as a lens, the focus of which has been ascertained, by experiment, to be equivalent to the length of the transparent pyramid behind it ; so that the image produced by the lens will fall upon the extremity of the filament of the optic nerve, which passes to its truncated end. The rays which have passed through the several 'cor- neules ' are prevented from mixing with each other by means of the layer of black pigment which sur- rounds each cone ; and thus, no rays, except those which correspond with the axis of the cone, can reach the fibres of the optic nerve. Hence it is evident that each separate eye must have an extremely PHYSIOLOGY OF THE BEE. 87 limited range of vision, being adapted to receive but a very small pencil of rays proceeding from a single point in any object; and as these eyes are immovable, they would afford but very imperfect information bf the position of surrounding objects, were it not for their enormous multiplication, by which a separate eye, so to speak, is provided for each point to be viewed. No two of these, save those upon the opposite sides of the head, which are directed exactly forwards, can form an image of the same point at the same time ; but the combined action of all of them may give to the insect, it may be imagined, as distinct a picture as that we obtain by a very different organisation." We venture to suggest that another reason for the vast multiplication of the numbers of " ocelli " is to enable the insects to see in what would be to us darkness. Nearly all the operations carried on in the interior of the hives are done, during the day-time, in very dim light ; and in the night-time, when work is by no means intermitted, there would, to our eyes, be abso- lute darkness. To the bees, however, the scanty rays received by so many sensitive points may be sufficient to enable them to see with considerable clearness. If the simple enlargement of a single pupil, such as takes place in us on emerging from a strong into a dim light, makes so great a difference in our power of vision — a fact with which we are all familiar on going from a well-lighted room into what seems for the first few seconds complete dark- ness— we may well believe that the permanent means of entry into the sensorium of an immense number of separate rays may give greatly enlarged powers of seeing scantily illuminated objects. THE HONEY-BEE. Still, an opposite view is held by many naturalists, for it seems very doubtful whether there is any power in the bee of focusing these eyes, so as to adapt their range to different distances. The probability is that no such faculty of adjustment exists in them. We should expect this from the structure of the visual apparatus. Yet it seems possible that the compound eyes act as telescopes, and serve for great range of vision, but not for near objects. For, while bees dart homewards from far-off fields with the directness of an arrow, they will frequently fly against persons or things in the direct line of their course, without apparently having seen them at a little distance off. Moreover, when they have alighted within an inch or two of the entrance to their hives, they often fail to perceive its position, and constantly wander to one side or the other, searching for their way in. We might conclude, therefore, that these compound eyes confer distinctness of vision afar, and possibly ability to use up scanty light, rather than any great discern- ment of objects near at hand. In addition to these " facetted " eyes, bees have, on the top of the head, three simple ones, called by some writers "coronets," by others "stemmata." Their position and arrangement are shown at g in Fig. 27, p. 98. The focal length of their lens is said to be short, and they are supplied with numerous filaments from the optic ganglia. The special purpose of these simple organs is not well ascer- tained. If their focal length is short, this would seem to imply that their range of vision is also very limited. But it is very possible they may possess a focusing power, which would adapt them for seeing PHYSIOLOGY OF THE BEE. 89 at all distances. Reaumur thinks they may, with their hemispherical lens, act as microscopes. This point needs further investigation, as the subject of the uses of these two kinds of visual apparatus is, at present, very far from satisfactorily elucidated. One remark- able fact relating to the " stemmata " must be mentioned. It is that, if they be covered with a little opaque paint, the bee, on being let go, will fly continually upwards. Dr. W. B. Carpenter considers this curious fact due to automatic movements initiated by the ganglia connected with flight, uncontrolled by the visual impressions which the simple eyes convey in their natural condition. Neither kind of eye has a lid, but both are protected from dust by numerous small hairs growing round them, and in the points of junction of the facets. How far the eyes of bees enable them to distinguish colours is still a moot point. On a priori grounds we should expect that one very definite object in the hues of flowers is to attract the notice of insects, just as we have strong reason to believe that odours exhaled in the vegetable world serve this purpose. Sir John Lubbock has detailed a series of experi- ments on this point, the following summary of which is abstracted from his work on Ants, Bees, and Wasps. He says, p. 304 : " In recording the results I marked down successively the order in which the bee went to the different-coloured glasses (on which honey was placed). For instance, in the first journey from the nest, as recorded below, the bee lit first on the blue, which accordingly I marked I ; when the blue was removed, she flew about a little, and then lit on the white ; when the white was removed she settled THE HONEY-BEE. on the green ; and so on successively on the orange, yellow, plain, and red. I repeated the experiment a hundred times, using two different hives — one in Kent, and one in Middlesex — and spreading the observations over some time, so as to experiment with different bees, and under varied circumstances. Adding the numbers together, it, of course, follows that the greater the preference shown for each colour, the lower will be the number standing against it. " The following table gives the first day's observa- tions in extenso : — Journeys. Blue. Green. Plain Glass. Orange. Red. White. Yellow. I I 3 6 4 7 2 5 2 5 4 7 6 2 3 3 4 7 6 5 3 2 4 2 4 6 7 5 I 3 5 I 4 7 2 b 5 3 6 I 2 3 6 5 4 7 7 2 I 4 7 3 5 6 8 3 4 6 2 7 5 i 9 5 i 7 4 6 3 2 10 i 6 7 5 3 2 4 ii 4 6 5 2 7 3 i 26 39 65 51 55 35 37 " In the next series of experiments the bees had been trained for three weeks to come to a particular spot on a large lawn, by placing from time to time honey on a piece of plain glass. This naturally gave the plain glass an advantage ; nevertheless, as will be seen, the blue still retained its pre-eminence. It seems hardly necessary to give the observations PHYSIOLOGY OF THE BEE. in detail. The following table shows the general result : — Series. 0 0. • X 3 09 c OJ O g 6 d J3 1 j Yellow. ISt. II 26 65 ccr 35 2nd. May 30 3rd. July 2 4th. 4 5th. 5 6th. 6 7th. 20 8th. 23 9th. 25 15 16 10 2 II IO 10 38 44 43 36 2 33 3' 22 57 76 61 47 8 39 46 54 59 82 64 39 9 5o 48 72 73 80 40 IO 47 52 52 66 53 66 40 49 37 33 58 53 50 5 35 35 70 67 56 42 7 49 % IOO 275 427 440 491 413 349 405 " The precautions taken seem to me to have placed the colours on an equal footing ; while the number of experiments appears sufficient to give a fair average." As this table differs in form from the other, it may be as well to explain the first line of figures in illustration of the whole. The first series consisted of eleven experiments. The preferences were noted as before, and when the numbers indicat- ing these were added up, the results were that twenty-six represented the total for the blue glass, thirty-nine for the green, fifty-one for the orange, sixty-five for the plain glass, fifty-five for the red, thirty-five for the white, and thirty-seven for the yellow — the blue being again manifestly the most attractive colour to the bees. Some practical bee- keepers consider the question by no means settled. The field is doubtless open for further exploration. 92 THE HONEY-BEE. The Antenna. — In the front part of the head are two organs, which appear to supplement, in some remark- able way, probably by touch-sensations, the power of vision, and also to possess other capabilities con- stituting a sense to which we have nothing strictly analogous. These organs are called antenna. They spring from origins near together, at equal distances from the medial and anterior point of the head, and are connected, by distinct and somewhat large fila- ments, with the nerve matter forming the cephalic ganglia. Externally they consist, first, of one segment nearest the head, much longer than the rest. This part is called the scape. Then, forming a sort of elbow with it, is the flagellum, consisting of eleven joints in queens and workers, and of twelve in the drones. These segments are tubular, and so attached to each other as to give the greatest possible freedom of motion. Their extremities are wonderfully sensitive, and it is probable that there is a very delicate power of feeling in each of the joints. For the cleansing of these organs, special provision is made in the construction of the fourth and fifth joints of the most forward pair of legs. At the anterior part of the tibia, or fourth joint, is a spur, within, and at the base of, which is a small angular projection, called the velum or sail. At the base of the next joint, and opposite the play of this velum, is found a deep notch. From the fact of its being fringed with hairs, this is called the curry-comb. Upon this notch the velum can act at the will of the insect, and, when shut over one another, they form a circular orifice, just large enough to take the antennae. When the latter organ needs cleansing, it is laid within the notch : the velum PHYSIOLOGY OF THE BEE. 93 is pressed over it, and being drawn through the round space, dust and other soilures are removed from its surface. So particular are the bees about keeping their antennae thoroughly clean, that they may often be observed continuing this operation of drawing them through the curry-comb till perfectly satisfied with their condition. Doubtless, the delicate nature of the impressions to which these organs are sus- ceptible, supplies the reason for the care taken in freeing them from all extraneous substances. The uses served by the antennae are various and very remarkable. Their first function seems to be to supplement vision. Endowed with exceeding flexibility, they are kept by the insects in constant motion ; and when their eyes fail to guide them to particular spots, such as the entrance to the hive, or as to the nature of objects with which they come into contact, the antennae appear to supply the necessary information. There is little doubt that these " horns" or "feelers," as they are commonly called, are sensitive, also, to impressions from objects at some distance. Vibrations of the air too feeble to affect our organs affect them. It may even be that other qualities of the atmosphere are appre- hended by them. The shape of the cells; the suitability of these for brood of various kinds, for honey or for bee-bread, is ascertained by the antennae. Every want and every duty is recognised by them ; the presence or absence of the queen is discovered by their use, and intelligence is conveyed from one individual to another by means of them. Of these facts, Huber has given the following striking evidence. He divided a stock hive into two 94 THE 'HONE Y-BEE. parts by metal network, sufficiently fine to prevent the passage of the bees, but with meshes wide enough to allow the antennae to be passed through. At first, by a pair of such gratings at a little distance apart, he separated the two portions, so that no communi- cation whatever could take place between them. Very soon that half from which the queen was excluded showed signs of commotion and distress, and even began to prepare queen-cells, to supply themselves with a new sovereign ; but when, by the removal of one grating, Huber allowed the feelers to be used to convey intelligence between the bees on opposite sides of the remaining division, he saw the insects by hundreds making inquiries as to what had happened. Then the queen was observed on the grating, and the bees being assured, by crossing antennae with her, that their mother was still in the hive, though shut off from free access to one set of her subjects, they all quieted down, left off making the royal cells, and resumed their various avocations. Huber tried the further experiment of depriving two queens of their antennae, and introducing both into the same hive. The population did not seem able to recognise their own sovereign from the stranger, and both were let alone ; but, directly he put in a third queen, unmutilated in these organs, the workers fell upon her, and slaughtered her. The antennseless queens lost all purpose, laid eggs at random, and wandered about the hives as if they had "lost their heads." Another very curious fact is, that if a worker is deprived of her feelers, and then allowed to fly, she becomes incapable of recognising her hive, even PHYSIOLOGY OF THE BEE. 95 when near to it, and is hopelessly lost as to her where- abouts. From this circumstance we are inclined to conclude that the antennae are possessed of sensi- bilities to which we have nothing strictly analogous — that, in fact, there resides in them a sense, or senses, with which mankind is not endowed, one of which we are disposed to call the " homing-sense." Numerous observations show that by the antennae, also, distinct information can be given. We have ourselves tried the following experiment in con- firmation of this point. Having placed near the entrance of a hive a dead humble-bee, we first noticed one of the sentinels rush to the body, and with her feelers investigate its nature. Finding it was a lifeless creature, and one, therefore, simply to be got rid of, she began to tug at it, to move it towards the edge of the floor - board. At once discovering that the weight was too great for her strength, she went to the entrance, and meeting a friend, by crossing their feelers, the one was made aware of the difficulty of the other. The second then went to the aid of the first ; but, as the body was too great a burden for their united efforts, the new-comer gave up her attempts to move it, as if the duty did not concern her much. The first bee, however, would not be baffled till she had fetched several other individuals, one at a time, to the work in hand. But, at length, as she could get no combined action, and as no two were sufficiently strong to haul away the large carcase of their distant relative, she gave up the task in despair, and retired to the hive in apparent disgust. On a moonlight night the sentries may be observed 96 THE HONEY-BEE. marching eagerly about the entrances of their abodes, and vigorously moving their antennae, to ascertain whether moths, or other unwelcome intruders, are trying to get inside the hives. The presence of an enemy being detected, he is soon chased away. By some naturalists the feelers have been thought to afford the capacity of smell. It is, however, more probable that this sense resides in the mouth itself, or in its immediate neighbourhood. Whether or not bees appreciate sound, is another moot point. It is, indeed, doubted by many observers whether hearing is possessed at all by insects. Sir John Lubbock records a series of experiments which he conducted on this point, to which we shall make reference a little later on. Those writers, who credit bees with the ability to distinguish sound waves, incline to the belief that the power resides in the antennas. As modern science has shown that all our physical impressions are modifications of vibra- tion, variously interpreted, according to the means by which they are conveyed to the sensorium, we may readily imagine that more than one faculty may reside in these jointed organs of which we have been speaking, and that each separate part may possibly have its own specific function; while, by combined action, such differences may be made as are analo- gous to chords, and harmonies, or discords in music, as compared with the striking of single notes. We have dwelt at considerable length on the subject of the antennae, not simply because what is known of them is so remarkable, but because we wish to draw attention to the fact that there is here a most interesting field for further investigation. PHYSIOLOGY OF THE BEE. 97 Much remains to be done to clear up the mysteries still unsolved, and to harmonise the various observa- tions already made respecting the nature and pro- perties of these organs, which, not only in bees, but in many other families of insects, play such an im- portant part in their life-history. The Mouth. — Passing next to the mouth, we find a somewhat complex structure ; for it consists of many parts, each of which has its ascertained function. We find first, the labrum, or upper lip ; the epipharynx, or valve closing the aperture of the gullet ; the pharynx, or gullet, forming the true mouth, as well as the entrance to the oesophagus, or food-pipe ; the hypopharynx, lying just below the gullet ; the labium, or lower lip ; and the proboscis, or true tongue. These are all single parts ; but there are also pairs of mandibles, or upper jaws, and maxilla, or lower jaws, besides palpi — certain jointed, sensiferous organs, whose functions are not well understood, but which are possibly connected with the sensation of taste. The labrum, or upper lip, has a vertical motion, and when not in use falls over the organs beneath it ; while it is covered, in its turn, by the mandibles, which are jointed on to the cheeks, and act laterally. The pharynx is a cavity lying beneath the epipharynx, and can be closed by the latter, over which the two previously described parts lap, so that the entrance to the oesophagus is trebly protected. The labium, or lower lip, is capable of being pushed forward and retracted, and lies, when not in use, within the under cavity of the head. On either side are the maxillce, or so-called jaws, H 98 THE HONEY-BEE. which form the under sheath of the rest of the lingual structures when in repose. The true tongue is attached to the middle point of the lower lip, having the labial palpi at its sides. It is much elongated when thrust out in use. While FIG. 27. — HEAD OF BEE, WITH ANTENNAE. Antennae. b. Compound eyes. {c. Jaws. d. Maxillae. e. Labial palpi. f. Ligula, or tongue. g. Stemmata. at rest, the anterior part folds back upon the posterior portion, when it is covered by the maxillae, which seem then like a part of the tongue itself. The back is much larger than the front. The whole is flattened, when not sipping liquid. It is then much broader than its thickness, but its edges are rounded. It PHYSIOLOGY OF THE BEE. 99 narrows from its base to its extremity, at which there is a slight inflation, which seems to have a perfora- tion in its centre, and is surrounded by hairs. The tongue has also a large number of cartilaginous rings, each bordered with minute hairs, which appear to be the means used for sweeping up the last remains of any fluid which has been almost ex- hausted. The act of imbibition is performed, not so much by suction, as by lapping. Its motions being free in all directions, it can easily draw liquid into the mouth on all sides. We notice, however, that when the supply of food being taken is very considerable, the segments of the abdomen have a vibratory motion, or, rather, are alternately lengthened and shortened, as if fluid were being pumped into the body. It is, therefore, possible that, under some circumstances, suction as well as lapping may go on. Still, it is remarkable that a bee does not insert the tip of its proboscis into a drop of honey or other saccharine material, as it would do if it intended to draw liquid through a tube. It much rather uses the middle of the upper surface of the tongue, curving round the point as if not to employ it. If, however, the honey or syrup be very thick, the fore-part of the tongue is thrust into it, possibly to dilute the liquid with saliva, and thus to render it fit for lapping. In all cases the insect tries to load the upper surface, whence the fluid passes backward under the sheaths to the gullet ; and we see no reason to believe that the proboscis constitutes a tube for imbibition. A further confirmation of this conclusion is given by Shuckard, who says, " By pressing towards its origin, I have detected the liquid which gave it its extension ; but H 2 ioo THE HONEY-BEE. all my pressing would never make the liquid pass through the extremity, although the pressure has sometimes made it almost rend the membranes to give it an opening to escape by." A further use of the tongue is for shaping the pliant wax in comb-building ; and it appears to be employed much as a trowel is by a bricklayer, or, perhaps, we should rather say, like a finger by a moulder of plaster of Paris. As we have mentioned, the jaws open vertically ; but the mandibles and maxillae work horizontally. They are thus enabled to seize and tightly hold any object they can grasp. The mandibles of the drone and the queen have two notches or teeth. Those of workers are not thus furnished, probably because, for shaping and smoothing the cells, an unbroken edge is much more convenient than a notched one. These organs are, however, very strong, and enable their possessor to grasp enemies, drones or queens ; to nibble hard kinds of food ; to break away pieces of damaged comb ; and to mould wax for building purposes. In the last of these operations they are, doubtless, aided by the shear-like maxillae. CHAPTER XII. HEARING, TASTE, AND SMELLING. Hearing — Sir John Lubbock's Experiments — Sounds uttered by Queen — Effects produced by them — Smell-Organs — Purposes — Liking for, and Antipathy to, certain Effluvia — Discovery by Bees of Nectar and Honey. WITH regard to the sense of hearing, Sir John Lubbock says : " The result of my experiments on the hearing of bees has surprised me very much. It is generally considered that, to a certain extent, the emotions of bees are expressed by the sounds they make, which seems to imply that they possess the power of hearing. I do not by any means intend to deny that this is the case. Nevertheless, I never found them take any notice of any noise which I made, even when it was close to them. I tried one of my bees with a violin. I made all the noise I could, but, to my surprise, she took no notice. I could not even see a twitch of the antennae. The next day I tried the same with another bee, but could not see the slightest sign that she was con- scious of the noise. On August 3ist I repeated the experiment with another bee, with the same result. On September I2th and I3th I tried several bees with a dog-whistle and a shrill pipe, but they took no notice 1 02 THE HONE Y-BEE. whatever ; nor did a set of tuning-forks, which I tried on a subsequent day, have any more effect. These tuning-forks extended over three octaves, beginning with A below the ledger-line. I also tried with my voice, shouting, &c., close to the head of a bee ; but, in spite of my utmost efforts, the bees took no notice. I repeated these experiments at night, when the bees were quiet ; but no noise that I could make seemed to disturb them in the least. In this respect the results of my observations on bees entirely agreed with those on ants." These experiments do not appear by any means conclusive. It may well be that sounds which are merely loud or shrill would pass unnoticed by the insects, as conveying no meaning to them. In like manner, a clap of thunder, the firing of a cannon or gun, the playing of a brass band, will produce no manifest effect upon them ; but, if the queen utters, as she sometimes does, a peculiar sound, an instan- taneous and very remarkable recognition of it takes place. The sound referred to is usually heard at the time when the young princesses are ready to emerge from the cells in which they have been developed. When thus emitted by the young queens, no attention appears to be paid to it by the workers, who, however, restrain the mother-queen from destroying her royal daughters. But, when these are released from their natal captivity, and the queen, standing with her thorax against a comb, makes, with her wings crossed over her back and in rapid vibration, a certain sound, it receives immediate attention. Huber tells us that bees which had been plucking at, biting, and chas- ing the queen, hung down their heads when this HEARING, TASTE, AND SMELLING. 103 peculiar noise was uttered, and remained altogether motionless ; and whenever she had recourse to this assertion of authority, the same effects followed. Again, unless observers are fanciful in their inter- pretation of the sounds to be heard at various times in a hive, we must conclude that certain feelings, such as those of anger, grief, consternation, satis- faction, joy, &c.,' are expressed in distinct tones. If this is the case, we can only conclude that, difficult as it may be to localise the organ of hearing, such an organ must exist. Nor, in all probability, shall we be mistaken in assigning its position to the antennae ; for recent investigations into the anatomy of these organs in ants/ lend much support to the theory that an auditory apparatus is situated in them. Taste. — Next as to taste. We have already spoken of the close connection between this sense and the preceding ; but, whatever doubt may be enter- tained as to the possession of the former, there can be none as to the latter. Huber, indeed, from the fact that bees are often seen lapping stable-liquid and sewage, thought the sense of taste could exist in them to only a very small degree. It must be remembered, however, that, like many other creatures, they are fond of certain salts, and to this, no doubt, may be ascribed their visits to the above-mentioned liquids. On a priori grounds we should conclude that the possession of this faculty was most important, for the detection of nectar suitable and unsuitable for the purposes of the hive. Moreover, we find a marked preference shown for flowers which produce the best honey ; and the eagerness with which they will lap up 1 Vide p. 227 of Ants, Bees, and Wasps, by Sir John Lubbock. 104 THE HONEY-BEE. any thoroughly sweet liquid confirms the idea that they taste very readily. Smell. — Probably of all the senses of bees none is so acute as that of the perception of odours. Not only do they distinguish the citizens of their own hive from those of other communities ; not only do they discriminate between the fragrance of various flowers ; not only can they detect the aroma of honey concealed from their sight, though not from their olfactory nerves, but they show a marked antipathy to certain human individuals, which can only be accounted for by supposing that from these persons proceeds an effluvium disagreeable to the bees, though not perceptible by, or unpleasant to, man. A remarkable anecdote in confirmation of this well- known fact is given by Bevan, on the authority of M. de Hofer, Councillor of State to the Grand Duke of Baden. This gentleman's father had for years kept bees, and had devoted much personal attention to them. He had, indeed, attained such familiarity with them, and such skill in their manipulation, that he could, without fear of being stung, search for and find the queen, and take her in his fingers. Unfor- tunately, he fell ill with a severe fever, which kept him for a long time a prisoner to his house. After his convalescence he visited his bees, returning to them with his old confidence and pleasure. Greatly to his surprise and dismay, he found their feelings towards him entirely changed. They would no longer allow him to approach the hives, much less to perform any of his former manipulations ; and that this was not the effect of a change of the popu- lation, through the natural perishing of the workers, HEARING, TASTE, AND SMELLING. 105 but was due to some alteration in him, was shown by the fact that he was never again able to resume his old familiarity with his favourites. Some change in his blood, brought about by the fever, made the emanations from his skin permanently offensive to the bees, though no such difference was perceptible to any of his human friends. M. Feburier and other observers assert that a certain antipathy is manifested towards persons with red or black hair. We have reason to doubt the correctness of their opinion as to the latter class, and we more strongly incline to think that fair-com- plexioned people are less agreeable to bees than those who are darker. As a corroboration of this, we may mention the case of two brothers, one of whom could always approach the hives with impunity, while the other could not come near them without danger of being stung. Though both of them were dark, the obnoxious one was decidedly the fairer. A further evidence of their sense of smell is the anger they manifest on the crushing of one of their number. Like the terror inspired into an ox by the smell of freshly-drawn blood in the slaughter-house, is the odour of a bruised comrade to bees. Again, the smell of the liquid from one of their poison bags excites them strongly. A wound just made by a sting rouses others to inflict more wounds ; and, if the fluid be presented to them at the entrance of their homes, it at once stirs their fury. If, however, it be allowed to crystallise, and thus to become incapable of emitting any odour, it will be quite disregarded by the bees. Sir John Lubbock tried various experi- ments with eau-de-Cologne and rose-water, and found io6 THE HONEY-BEE. that, till the insects had become habituated by frequent use to these liquids, they always came out to the entrance, to ascertain the meaning of the odours which had penetrated into the hives. It is well known, also, that they dislike the smell of paint so much, that it is not advisable to place a swarm in a freshly painted box, lest they should forsake it, from its unpleasant odour. We may well conclude that it is owing to the keenness of this sense that they perceive the pre- sence of flowers containing nectar; and, guided by it, they wing their flight to distant fields where the white clover attracts them, or to more barren districts where the heath promises them abundant pasturage. It is very certain that the fragrant aroma of honey is at once perceived by them at many feet from their dwellings ; and inTtaking their sweets from them it is, for this reason, necessary to avoid all exposure of broken combs, or the dripping of their contents. Great trouble is, in fact, often occasioned by the readiness with which they thus detect the presence of their own produce. Within our personal know- ledge, at a provincial show of bees, hives, and honey^ the fragrance of the liquid attracted bees from the neighbourhood in such immense numbers that they carried off, during one afternoon, some seventy pounds of honey from the tent in which it was being exhibited. The position of the organ of smell is not clearly ascertained. By some, as we have said, the an- tennae have been credited with the power ; but, though many observations may seem to favour this opinion, we must remember that we have on record some striking facts, which would seem, at least, to HEARING, TASTE, AND SMELLING. 107 show that powerful odours are able to be recognised by other portions of the body. Lehmann and Cuvier came to the conclusion that the spiracles, con- nected with the respiration of bees, are the means by which the sense of smell is exercised. The idea was based on the notion that odours can only be per- ceived by the inhalation of air. This, of course, is not a sufficient ground for the inference arrived at. Kirby and Spence, again, inclined, as we have already mentioned, to the belief that the organ of smell lay in or near the mouth. This supposition was partly founded on the close relation between taste and smell. Huber's experiments lent some confirmation to this theory. He presented a camel's-hair brush with a little oil of turpentine on its tip to every part successively of the abdomen, trunk, and head, without producing any discomfort to the bee. He then tried the eyes and antennae, without any ap- parent effect ; but, as soon as he directed it a little above the insertion of the proboscis and close to the mouth, immediate signs of annoyance showed them- selves. This experiment, repeated with other strongly- smelling liquids, gave similar results ; but, when the mouths of the insects experimented upon were stopped with paste, the perception of odours appeared no longer to exist. For the present, then, the matter remains in doubt ; but we may suggest to our readers that observations on this point, carefully and patiently conducted, may lead to much useful information being obtained. It is impossible to pass from an examination and description of the head-apparatus of the bee, without being struck with the marvellous beauty, and equally loS THE HONEY-BEE. wonderful adaptation, of each of its parts to the varied functions required of them. Whether observed by the unassisted eye, or by a lens of low or high power, we cannot fail to see how exquisitely each minutest portion is fashioned; how remarkably the various organs are protected according to their delicacy ; how supplied with nerve-fibre in proportion to the sensitiveness required in them ; how supplementary one to another in their diverse duties ; how harmo- nious in their working ; and how fitted as a whole to the wants and the instincts of the insects to which they belong. Nor, as it seems to us, is it possible to believe that any force of evolution, unguided by a distinctly controlling and Divine creative power, could ever have elaborated organs so precisely what might have been expected to result from the exercise of infinite wisdom and manifest purpose. CHAPTER XIII. THE THORAX. Detailed Description — Legs— Wings — How used in Flight — Hooking together — Employed for Ventilating. THE thorax of the bee is divided into three sec- tions, or imperfect rings. Of these, that nearest the head is called the /^-thorax, the middle one the mesa-thorax, and the hindmost the meta-thornx. To the first of these are attached the most forward pair of legs; to the second, another pair of legs and one pair of wings ; to the third, the last pair of legs and the other pair of wings. These organs of locomotion constitute, in fact, all that is worthy of special interest in this segment of the body, and we will, therefore, give a short account of them. The legs of all insects consist of five parts, or joints, and in the case of the bee they are not only the means of walking or crawling, but, like some of the head organs of which we have spoken, serve several purposes. The first of the leg-segments is called the coxa, or hip, and is short and round, appearing, indeed, to be little more than the joint by which the limb is articulated to the body. The second is named the trochanter, and is very similar no THE HONEY-BEE. to the coxa. One purpose effected by these two portions is to give great freedom of motion to the whole member. Next comes the femur, or thigh, a longer and flatter division. This is followed by the tibia, or shank, a stouter and thicker division, which, especially in the hind-legs, becomes gradually wider FIG. 28. — LOWER SEGMENTS OF HIND- LEG OF BEE, CONSIDERABLY ENLARGED. FIG. 29. — COMPLETE HIND-LEG OF BEE. downwards, and in the workers is adapted to a very special use, as we shall directly see. Then in succes- sion we have the tarsus, or foot, consisting of five joints, the first very much stouter than the rest, and as long as the remaining four. It is terminated by a pair of hooked claws, with a cushion or pulvillus. We have already spoken of the remarkable ap- paratus found in the four anterior tarsi, adapted to THE THORAX. m the purpose of cleansing the antennae. At the junction of the fourth and fifth segments (the tibia and the tarsus] of the leg of a worker a cavity is formed by the uppermost edge of the latter and the lower of the former. The cavity can be opened or closed at the will of the insect. This pocket, or pollen- basket, is lined along its upper edge with a row of lancet-shaped hairs, which aid in detaining the tiny balls of pollen, as they are successively deposited on the leg. Like a series of prong-tines, they can be pressed into the yielding bee-bread, and keep it from falling off; while, as they point downwards, they present no obstacle to the brushing off of the whole mass by the bee, on its return to the hive. The slight hollowing of the tibia and the tarsus at the approximating ends, affords more space for the gathered pollen, and also assists in its safe carriage to the cells. The last joint .of the tarsus is armed with a pair of double claws, and between them lies a hollow cup- shaped cushion, somewhat like that which enables the house-fly to walk on glass or other very smooth surfaces, only that the pulvillus of the fly is double. The edge of the cup is fringed with cilice, or very minute hairs, of such delicacy that a powerful lens is required to see them. Under the microscope, the object is one of great interest. The claws serve for hanging from the roof or sides of hives, and for clinging to each other at swarming or wax-making times, the cushion for walking on smooth surfaces. It is worthy of remark that all the joints of the legs are covered with hairs more or less stiff, and all pointing downwards. Their uses are to 112 THE HONEY-BEE. collect pollen, and to act as brushes and combs to all the external parts of the body, which need constant cleansing from flower-dust, and other matters less useful to the bee. Passing now to the wings, new marvels and beauties await our observation. These organs are four in number, the forward pair being considerably larger than the hinder. Each wing consists of a double membrane, dotted all over with fine hairs, whose purposes are to protect the delicate structure from FIG. 30.— WING OF BEE. wet, and from particles of various kinds which would adhere to it, and injure its surface. As a support for this expanded tissue, there is a ramifica- tion of stronger material, constituting nervures, and acting like the ribs of an umbrella. With these are associated air-vessels, or trachece, for the circulation of air, and, possibly, to assist in giving buoyancy to the organ. By another set of tubes a portion of the nutritive fluid is conveyed to certain parts of the wing, though no general circulation seems to take place in it. The substance of which the expanded portion, as well as the nervures, is composed, is very tough, and, as our readers may remember, the THE THORAX. 113 natural order to which the bees are assigned is named Hymenoptera, from the strongly membranous wings they possess. We can readily understand the importance to these insects of having their organs of flight powerful, and yet not weighty, tough without being clumsy. Con- sidering the length of their daily journeys, and the constant and rapid movements they require to make, we easily discern how well suited to their needs is the structure of their wings. But we must call attention to a remarkable provision for the further ^^^&d/^/^^Ji\ FlG. 31.— HOOKLETS OF A BEE'S WlNG. utility of these organs. Under a Jens of medium power may be seen, along the anterior edges of the hind wings, a series of booklets of hair, while on the posterior edge of the front wings is a rib, or bar, which the booklets can grasp. By this means the two wings, when used for flight, become practically one, thus presenting unbroken resistance to the air, and, in consequence, greatly increasing the power of propelling the body. When at rest, the unhook- ing of the edges enables the wings to be folded out of the way — no mean advantage in the crowded hive. 1 1 4 THE HONE Y-BEE. But there is a further benefit thus conferred on the insect. During hot weather, and when the population is very dense, ventilation is constantly and vigorously carried on by the workers, who, fixing themselves firmly by their claws to the floor-board at the entrance, some outside and some just within their homes, direct numerous currents of air into the hive. Of course there must issue a quantity corresponding to what is driven in, and thus a perpetual and free circulation is kept up. Now, if the wings worked independently, not only would a smaller quantity of air be affected by each stroke, but the two sets of motions would, to some extent, counteract each other. As it is, the hooked wings act like well-constructed and well-used fans. By the simple experiment of slitting such an implement down the middle, the comparative ad- vantages of a broken and an unbroken surface, for fanning purposes, can easily be put to the proof. Thus, again, we are struck with the fact that the more closely we examine the organs of any segment of the body of the insect, the more reason do we find to admire the skill, and the care for His creatures, manifested by the infinitely wise and the infinitely good Maker of them all. Beauty, adaptation, per- fection, are the words which are continually suggested to our minds by the contemplation of the structure of the bee. CHAPTER XIV. THE ABDOMEN. Respiratory Organs — Circulation of Nutritive Fluid — Digestion and Nutrition — Secretion of Wax — Reproductive Organs — Detailed description of Sting — Effects of Poison — Queen's Sting. THE abdomen constitutes the largest and hindmost segment of the body, and is important as containing several structures which have most essential functions in the economy of the insect. Among these are the chief parts of the respiratory apparatus, the diges- tive, the wax-making, the reproductive, and stinging organs. First, it must be noted that the bee has nothing strictly analogous to our lungs, heart, liver, and other structures making up a true circulating-system. At the same time there is a real oxygenation of the fluids of the body, with a consequent evolution of heat, water, and carbonic acid gas. The breathing apparatus has not its aperture for inspiration and expiration situated in the head, as is the case in the higher animals ; but air is admitted and expelled through apertures along both sides of the body. In the thorax are two pairs of such openings, and there is a pair on each ring of the I 2 n6 THE HONEY-BEE. abdomen. These air-holes are called spiracles, or stigmata, and lead into two minute chambers, one behind the other, the outer being provided with a number of short hairs, to prevent the entry of foreign particles likely to obstruct the important passages. From these vestibules the air is conducted by tubes, or trachea, into sacs or bladders communi- FIG. 32.— ABDOMEN OF BEE, SHOWING RESPIRATORY ORGANS.