Chapter VIII: Letter XIX: Societies of Insects (2)

The instinct of the bees, however, does not always enable them to distinguish a partially fertile queen from one that is universally so. What I mean is this--A queen, whose impregnation is retarded beyond the twenty-eighth day of her whole existence, lays only male eggs, which are of no use whatever to the community, unless they are at the same time provided with a sufficient supply of workers. Yet even a queen of this description, and sometimes one that is entirely sterile, is treated by them with the same respect and homage as a fertile one. This seems to evince an amiable feeling in these creatures, attachment to the person as well as to the functions of the sovereign; which is further manifested by their unwillingness at first to receive a new sovereign upon the loss or death of their old one. Nay, this respect is sometimes shown to the carcase of a defunct queen, which Huber assures us he has seen bees treat with the same attention that they had shown her when alive; for a long time preferring her inanimate corpse to the fertile queens that he offered to them[175]. He attributes this to some agreeable sensation which they experience from their queens, independent of their fecundity. But since virgin queens, as we have seen, do not excite it, more probably it is a remnant of their former attachment, first excited by her fecundity, and afterwards strengthened and continued by habit.

I may here introduce an interesting anecdote related by Reaumur, which strongly marks the attachment of bees to their queen when apparently lifeless. He took one out of the water quite motionless, and seemingly dead, which had lost part of one of its legs. Bringing it home, he placed it amongst some workers that he had found in the same situation, most of which he had revived by means of warmth; some however still being in as bad a state as the poor queen. No sooner did these revived workers perceive the latter in this wretched condition, than they appeared to compassionate her case, and did not cease to lick her with their tongues till she showed signs of returning animation; which the bees no sooner perceived, than they set up a general hum, as if for joy at the happy event. All this time they paid no attention to the workers who were in the same miserable state[176].

On a former occasion I have mentioned the laying of the eggs by the queen[177]; but as I did not then at all enlarge upon it, I shall now explain the process more in detail. In a subsequent letter I shall notice, what has so much puzzled learned apiarists--her fecundation: which is now ascertained beyond contradiction, from the observations of M. Huber, to take place in the open air, and to be followed by the death of the unfortunate male[178]. It is to be recollected that, from September to April, generally speaking, there are no males in the hives; yet during this period the queen often oviposits: a former fecundation, therefore, must fertilize all the eggs laid in this interval. The impregnation, in order to ensure complete fertility, must not be too long retarded: for, as I before observed, if this be delayed beyond the twenty-eighth day of her existence, her ovaries become so vitiated, that she can no longer lay eggs that will produce workers, but can only furnish the hive with a male population; which, however high a privilege it may be accounted amongst men, is the reverse of it amongst the bees. When this is the case, the abdomen of the queen becomes so enlarged that she is no longer able to fly[179]; and, what is remarkable, she loses that instinctive animosity which stimulates the fertile ones to attack their rivals[180]. Thus she seems to own that she is not equal to the duties of her station, and can tolerate another to discharge them in her room. When we consider how much virgin queens are slighted by their subjects, we may suppose that nature urges them to take the opportunity of the first warm day, when the males fly forth, to pair with one of them.

When fecundation has not been retarded, forty-six hours after it has taken place, the queen begins to lay eggs that will produce workers, and continues for the subsequent eleven months, more or less, to lay them solely; and it is only after this period that an uninterrupted laying of male eggs commences.--But when it has been retarded, after the same number of hours she begins laying male eggs, and continues to produce these alone during her whole life. From hence it should seem to follow, that the former kind of eggs are first in the oviducts, and, if impregnation be not effected within a given time, that all the worker embryos perish. Yet how this can take place with respect to those that in a fertile queen should succeed the laying of male eggs, or be produced in the second year of her life, seems difficult to conceive;--or how the male embryos escape this fate, which destroys all the female, both those that are to precede them and those that are to follow them. Is it impossible that the sex of the embryo may be determined by the period at which the _aura seminalis_ vivifies it, and by the state of the ovary at that time? In one state of the ovary this principle may cause the embryos to become workers, in another males. And something of this kind perhaps may be the cause of hermaphrodites in other animals. But this I give merely as conjecture[181]: the truth seems enveloped in mystery that we cannot yet penetrate. Huber is of opinion that a single impregnation fertilizes all the eggs that a queen will produce during her whole life, which is sometimes more than two years[182]. But of this enough.

I said that forty-six hours after impregnation the queen begins laying worker eggs;--this is not, however, invariable. When her impregnation takes place late in the year, she does not begin laying till the following spring. Schirach asserts, that in one season a single female will lay from 70,000 to 100,000 eggs[183]. Reaumur says, that upon an average she lays about two hundred in a day, a moderate swarm consisting of 12,000, which are laid in two months; and Huber, that she lays above a hundred. All these statements, the observations being made in different climates, and perhaps under different circumstances, may be true. The laying of worker eggs begins in February, sometimes so early as January[184]. After this, in the spring, the great laying of male eggs commences, lasting thirty days; in which time about 2000 of these eggs are laid. Another laying of them, but less considerable, takes place in autumn. In the season of oviposition, the queen may be discerned traversing the combs in all directions with a slow step, and seeking for cells proper to receive her eggs. As she walks she keeps her head inclined, and seems to examine, one by one, all the cells she meets with. When she finds one to her purpose, she immediately gives to her abdomen the curve necessary to enable it to reach the orifice of the cell, and to introduce it within it. The eggs are set in the angle of the pyramidal bottom of the cell, or in one of the hollows formed by the conflux of the sides of the rhombs, and, being besmeared with a kind of gluten, stand upright. If, however, it be a female that lays only male eggs, they are deposited upon the lowest of the sides of the cell, as she is unable to reach the bottom[185].

While our prolific lady is engaged in this employment, her court consists of from four to twelve attendants, which are disposed nearly in a circle, with their heads turned towards her. After laying from two to six eggs, she remains still, reposing for eight or nine minutes. During this interval the bees in her train redouble their attentions, licking her fondly with their tongues. Generally speaking, she lays only one egg in a cell; but when she is pressed, and there are not cells enough, from two to four have been found in one. In this case, as if they were aware of the consequences, the provident workers remove all but one. From an experiment of Huber's, it appears that the instinct of the queen invariably directs her to deposit worker eggs in worker cells; for when he confined one, during her course of laying worker eggs, where she could only come at male cells, she refused to oviposit in them; and trying in vain to make her escape, they at length dropped from her; upon which the workers devoured them. Retarded queens, however, lose this instinct, and often, though they lay only male eggs, oviposit in worker cells and even in royal ones. In this latter case the workers themselves act as if they suffered in their instinct from the imperfect state of their queen; for they feed these male larvæ with royal jelly, and treat them as they would a real queen. Though male eggs deposited in worker cells produce small males, their education in a royal cell with "royal dainties" adds nothing to their ordinary dimensions[186].

The _swarming_ of bees is a very curious and interesting subject, to which, since a female is the _sine quâ non_ on this occasion, I may very properly call your attention here. You will recollect that I said something upon the principle of emigrations, when I was amusing you with the history of ants[187]; but the object with them seems to be merely a change of station for one more convenient or less exposed to injury, and not to diminish a superabundant population. Whereas in the societies of the hive-bee, the latter is the general cause of emigrations, which invariably take place every year, if their numbers require it; if not, when the male eggs are laid, no royal cells are constructed, and no swarm is led forth. What might be the case with ants, were they confined to hives, we cannot say. Formicaries in general are capable of indefinite enlargement, therefore want of room does not cause emigration;--but bees being confined to a given space, which they possess not the means of enlarging,--to avoid the ill effects resulting from being too much crowded, when their population exceeds a certain limit, they must necessarily emigrate. Sometimes--for instance, when wasps have got into a hive--the bees will leave it, in order to fly from an inconvenience or enemy which they cannot otherwise avoid; but it does not very often happen that they wholly desert a hive.

Apiarists tell us that, in this country, the best season for swarming is from the middle of May to the middle of June; but swarms sometimes occur so early as the beginning of April, and as late as the middle of August[188]. The first swarm, as I before observed, is led by the reigning queen, and takes place when she is so much reduced in size, in consequence of the number of eggs she has laid, (for previously to oviposition her gravid body is so heavy that she can scarcely drag it along,) as to enable her to fly with ease. The most indubitable sign that a hive is preparing to swarm,--so says Reaumur,--is when on a sunny morning, the weather being favourable to their labours, few bees go out of a hive, from which on the preceding day they had issued in great numbers, and little pollen is collected. This circumstance, he observes, must be very embarrassing to one who attempts to explain all their proceedings upon principles purely mechanical. Does it not prove, he asks, that all the inhabitants of a hive, or almost all, are aware of a project that will not be put in execution before noon, or some hours later? For why should bees, who worked the day before with so much activity, cease their labours in a habitation which they are to quit at noon, were they not aware that they should soon abandon it[189]? The appearance of the males, and the clustering of the population at the mouth of the hive, (though this last is less to be relied upon, being often occasioned by extreme heat,) are also indications of the approach of this event. A good deal depends, however, on the warmth of the atmosphere and the state of the weather either to accelerate or retard it. Another sign is a general hum in the evening, which is continued even during the night,--all seems to be in a bustle, the greatest restlessness agitates the bees. Sometimes to hear this hum the ear must be placed close to the hive, when clear and sharp sounds may be distinguished, which appear to be produced by the vibration of the wings of a single bee. This hum by some has been gravely construed into an harangue of the queen to animate her subjects to the great undertaking which she now meditates--the founding of a new empire. There sometimes seem to happen suddenly amongst them, says Reaumur, events which put all the bees in motion, for which no account can be given. If you observe a hive with attention, you may often remain a long time and hear only a slight murmur, and then, all in a moment, a sonorous hum will be excited, and the workers, as if seized with a panic terror, may be seen quitting their various labours, and running off in different directions. At these moments if a young queen goes out, she will be followed by a numerous troop.

Huber has given a very lively and interesting account of the interior proceedings of the hive on this occasion. The queen, as soon as she began to exhibit signs of agitation, no longer laid her eggs with order as before, but irregularly, as if she did not know what she was about. She ran over the bees in her way; they in their turn struck her with their antennæ, and mounted upon her back; none offered her honey, but she helped herself to it from the cells in her path. The usual homage of a court attending round her was no longer paid. Those however that were excited by her motions followed her, rousing such as were still tranquil upon the combs. She soon had traversed the whole hive, when the agitation became general. The workers, now no longer attentive to the young brood, ran about in all directions; even those that returned from foraging, before the agitation was at its height, no sooner entered the hive than they participated in these tumultuous movements, and, neglecting to free themselves from the masses of pollen on their hind legs, ran wildly about. At length there was a general rush to the outlets of the hive, which the queen accompanied, and the swarm took place[190].

It is to be observed that this agitation, excited by the queen, increases the customary heat of the hive to a very high temperature, which the action of the sun augments till it becomes intolerable, and which often causes the bees accumulated near the mouth of the hive to perspire so copiously, that those near the bottom, who support the weight of the rest, appear drenched with the moisture. This intolerable heat determines the most irresolute to leave the hive. Immediately before the swarming, a louder hum than usual is heard, many bees take flight, and, if the queen be at their head, or soon follows them, in a moment the rest rise in crowds after her into the air, and the element is filled with bees as thick as the falling snow. The queen at first does not alight upon the branch on which the swarm fixes; but as soon as a group is formed and clustered, she joins it: after this it thickens more and more, all the bees that are in the air hastening to their companions and their queen, so as to form a living mass of animals supporting themselves upon each by the claws of their feet. Thus they sometimes are so concatenated, each bee suspending its legs to those of another, as to form living chaplets[191]. After this they soon become tranquil, and none are seen in the air. Before they are housed they often begin to construct a little comb on the branch on which they alight[192]. Sometimes it happens that two queens go out with the same swarm; and the result is, that the swarm at first divides into two bodies, one under each leader; but as one of these groups is generally much less numerous than the other, the smallest at last joins the largest, accompanied by the queen to whom they had attached themselves; and, when they are hived, this unfortunate candidate for empire falls sooner or later a victim to the jealousy of her rival. Till this great question is decided, the bees do not settle to their usual labours.[192] If no queen goes out with a swarm, they return to the hive from whence they came.

As in regular monarchies, so in this of the bees, the first-born is probably the fortunate candidate for the throne. She is usually the most active and vigorous; the most able to take flight; and in the best condition to lay eggs. Though the queen that is victorious, and mounts the throne, is not, as Virgil asserts, resplendent with gold and purple, and her rival hideous, slothful and unwieldy[193], yet some differences are observable; the successful candidate is usually redder and larger than the others; these last, upon dissection, appear to have no eggs ready for laying, while the former, which is a powerful recommendation, is usually full of them. Eggs are commonly found in the cells twenty-four hours after swarming, or at the latest two or three days.

You may think, perhaps, that the bees which emigrate from the parent hive are the youth of the colony; but this is not the case, for bees of all ages unite to form the swarms. The numbers of which they consist vary much. Reaumur calls 12,000 a moderate swarm; and he mentions one which amounted to more than three times that number (40,000). A swarm seldom or never takes place except when the sun shines and the air is calm. Sometimes, when every thing seems to prognosticate swarming, a cloud passing over the sun calms the agitation; and afterwards, upon his shining forth again, the tumult is renewed, keeps augmenting, and the swarm departs[194]. On this account the confinement of the queens, before related, is observed to be more protracted in bad weather.

The longest interval between the swarms is from seven to nine days, which usually is the space that intervenes between the first and the second. The next flies sooner, and the last sometimes departs the day after that which preceded it. Fifteen or eighteen days, in favourable weather, are usually sufficient for throwing the four swarms. The old queen, when she takes flight with the first swarm, leaves plenty of brood in the cells, which soon renew the population[195].

It is not without example, though it rarely happens, that a swarm conducted by the old queen increases so much in the space of three weeks as to send forth a new colony. Being already impregnated, she is in a condition to oviposit as soon as there are cells ready to receive her eggs: and an all-wise Providence has so ordered it, that at this time she lays only such as produce workers. And it is the first employment of her subjects to construct cells for this purpose[196]. The young queens that conduct the secondary swarms usually pair the day after they are settled in their new abode; when the indifference with which their subjects have hitherto treated them is exchanged for the usual respect and homage.

We may suppose that one motive with the bees for following the old queen, is their respect for her; but the reasons that induce them to follow the virgin queens, to whom they not only appear to manifest no attachment, but rather the reverse, seem less easy to be assigned. Probably the high temperature of the hive during these times of tumultuous agitation may be the principal cause that operates upon them. In a populous hive the thermometer commonly stands between 92° and 97°; but during the tumult that precedes swarming it rises above 104°, a heat intolerable to these animals[197]. This is M. Huber's opinion. Yet still, though a high temperature will well account for the departure of the swarm from the hive with a virgin queen, if there were really no attachment, (as he appears to think,) is it not extraordinary, that when this cause no longer operates upon them, they should agglomerate about her, as they always do, be unsettled and agitated without her, and quiet when she is with them? Is it not reasonable to suppose that the instinct which teaches them what is necessary for the preservation of their society,--at the same time that it shows them that without a queen that society cannot be preserved,--impells them in every case to the mode of treating her which will most effectually influence her conduct, and give it that direction which is most beneficial to the community?

Yet, with respect to the treatment of queens, instinct does not invariably direct the bees to this end. There are certain exceptions, produced perhaps by artificial or casual occurrences, in which it seems to deviate, yet as we should call it amiably, from the rule of the public advantage. Retarded queens, which, as I have observed, lay male eggs only, deposit them in all cells indifferently, even in royal ones. These last are treated by the workers as if they were actually to become queens. Here their instinct seems defective:--it appears unaccountable that they should know these eggs, as they do, when deposited in workers cells, and give them a convex covering when about to assume the pupa; unless, perhaps, the size of the larva directs them in this case.

The amputation of one of the antennæ of a queen bee appears not to affect her perceptibly; but cutting off both these important organs produces a very striking derangement of all her proceedings--She seems in a species of delirium, and deprived of all her instincts; every thing is done at random; yet the respect and homage of the workers towards her, though they are received by her with indifference, continue undiminished. If another in the same condition be put in the hive, the bees do not appear to discover the difference, and treat them both alike: but if a perfect one be introduced, even though fertile, they seize her, keep her in confinement, and treat her very unhandsomely. One may conjecture from this circumstance, that it is by those wonderful organs, the antennæ, that the bees know their own queen. If two mutilated queens meet, they show not the slightest symptom of resentment. While one of these continues in the hive, the workers never think of choosing another; but if she leaves it, they do not accompany her, probably because the heat is not increased by her putting them into the preparatory agitation[198].

I am, &c.

FOOTNOTES:

[125] _Apis_ **. e. l. K. Dr. Bevan has lately published a very interesting work on the _Honey Bee_, which the reader will do well to consult.

[126] VOL. I. 481.

[127] Judges xiv. 8, 9.

[128] See Aristot. _Hist. Animal._ l. v. c. 22. Virgil. _Georgic._ l. iv.; and Mouffet, 12--.

[129] Aristot. _ubi supr._ c. 21. _De Generat. Animal._ l. iii. c. 10, where there is some curious reasoning upon this subject.

[130] Bonnet, x. 199-- 236--.

[131] _Hist. Animal._ l. v. c. 22.

[132] _De Generat. Animal._ l. iii. c. 10.

[133] _Œuvr._ x. 194--.

[134] Bonnet, x. P. Huber in _Linn. Trans._ vi. 283. Reaumur (v. 373) observes that some queens are much larger than others; but he attributes this difference of their size to the state of the eggs in their body.

[135] As every reader is not aware of the differences of form, &c. that distinguish the females, males, and workers from each other (I have seen the male mistaken for a distinct species, and placed in a cabinet as _Apis lagopoda_, L.), I shall here subjoin a description of each.--

i. The _body_ of the _Female_ bee is considerably longer than that of either the drone or the worker. The prevailing colour in all three is the same, black or black-brown; but with respect to the female this does not appear to be invariably the case; for--not to insist upon Virgil's royal bees glittering with ruddy or golden spots and scales, where allowance must be made for poetic licence--Reaumur affirms, after describing some differences of colour in different individuals of this sex, that a queen may always be distinguished, both from the workers and males, by the colour of her body[136]. If this observation be restricted to the colour of some parts of her body, it is correct; but it will not apply to all generally (unless, as I suspect may be the case, by the term body he means the abdomen), for, in all that I have had an opportunity of examining, the prevailing colour, as I have stated it, is the same.

The _head_ is not larger than that of the workers; but the _tongue_ is shorter and more slender, with straighter _maxillæ_. The _mandibles_ are forficate, and do not jut out like theirs into a prominent angle; they are of the colour of pitch with a red tinge, and terminate in two teeth, the exterior being acute, and the interior blunt or truncated. The _labrum_ or upper-lip is fulvous; and the _antennæ_ are piceous.

In the _trunk_, the _tegulæ_ or scales that defend the base of the wings are rufo-piceous. The _wings_ reach only to the tip of the third abdominal segment. The _tarsi_ and the apex of the _tibiæ_ are rufo-fulvous. The posterior _tibiæ_ are plane above and covered with short adpressed hairs, having neither the _corbicula_ (or marginal fringe of hairs for carrying the masses of pollen) nor the _pecten_; and the posterior _plantæ_ have neither the brush formed of hairs set in striæ, nor the auricle at the base.

The _abdomen_ is considerably longer than the head and trunk taken together, receding from the trunk, elongato-conical, and rather sharp at the anus. The _dorsal_ segments are fulvous at the tip; covered with very short, pallid, and, in certain lights, shining adpressed hairs; the first segment being very short, and covered with longer hairs. The ventral segments, except the _anal_, which is black, are fulvescent or rufo-fulvous, and covered with soft longer hairs. The _vagina_ of the _spicula_ (commonly called the sting) is curved.

ii. The _Male_ bee, or drone, is quite the reverse of his royal paramour; his body being thick, short, and clumsy, and very obtuse at each extremity[137]. It is covered also, as to the _head_ and _trunk_, with dense hairs.

The _head_ is depressed and orbicular. The _tongue_ is shorter and more slender than that of the female; and the _mandibles_, though nearly of the same shape, are smaller. The _eyes_ are very large, meeting at the back part of the head. In the space between them are placed the _antennæ_ and _stemmata_. The former consist of fourteen joints, including the _radicle_, the fourth and fifth being very short and not easily distinguished.

The _trunk_ is large. The _wings_ are longer than the body. The _legs_ are short and slender. The _posterior tibiæ_ are long, club-shaped, and covered with inconspicuous hairs. The _posterior plantæ_ are furnished underneath with thick-set _scopulæ_, which they use to brush their bodies.

The _claw-joints_ are fulvescent.

The _abdomen_ is cordate, very short, being scarcely so long as the head and trunk together, consisting of seven segments, which are fulvous at their apex. The first segment is longer than any of the succeeding ones, and covered above with rather long hairs. The second and third dorsal segments are apparently naked; but under a triple lens, in a certain light, some adpressed hairs may be perceived;--the remaining ones are hairy, the three last being inflexed. The ventral segments are very narrow, hairy, and fulvous.

iii. The _body_ of the _Workers_ is oblong.

The _head_ triangular. The _mandibles_ are prominent, so as to terminate the head in an angle, toothless and forcipate. The _tongue_ and _maxillæ_ are long and incurved: the _labrum_ and _antennæ_ black.

In the _trunk_ the _tegulæ_ are black. The _wings_ extend only to the apex of the fourth segment of the abdomen. The _legs_ are all black, with the _digits_ only rather piceous. The posterior _tibiæ_ are naked above, exteriorly longitudinally concave, and interiorly longitudinally convex; furnished with lateral and recumbent hairs to form the _corbicula_, and armed at the end with the _pecten_. The upper surface of the _posterior plantæ_ resembles that of the _tibiæ_; underneath they are furnished with a _scopula_ or brush of stiff hairs set in rows: at the base they are armed with stiff bristles, and exteriorly with an acute appendage or _auricle_.

The _abdomen_ is a little longer than the head and trunk together; oblong, and rather heart-shaped--a transverse section of it is triangular. It is covered with longish flavo-pallid hairs: the first segment is short with longer hairs; the base of the three intermediate segments is covered, and as it were banded, with pale hairs. The apex of the three intermediate ventral segments is rather fulvescent, and their base is distinguished on each side by a trapeziform _wax-pocket_ covered by a thin membrane. The sting, or rather _vagina_ of the _spicula_, is straight.

[136] Reaumur, v. 375.

[137] Virgil seems to have regarded the drone as one of the sorts of kings or leaders of the bees, when he says, speaking of the latter,

"... Ille horridus alter
Desidiâ, latamque trahens inglorius alvum."
_Georgic_, iv. l. 93.

[138] See VOL. I. p. 486.

[139] In hives where a queen laying male eggs has been killed, the workers continue to make only male cells, though supplied with a fertile queen, and the fertile workers lay eggs in them. _Schirach_, 258.

[140] Huber, ii. 425--.

[141] Thorley, _On Bees_, 179.

[142] Huber, i. 137.

[143] Reaumur, who was however unacquainted with this extraordinary fact, has figured one of these cells, v. _t._ 32. _f._ 3. _h._

[144] Compare Bonnet, x. 156, with Huber, i. 134--.

[145] Schirach, 69.

[146] Huber, _t._ 4. _f._ 4-6.

[147] Huber, i. 292.

[148] Bonnet, x.

[149] Huber, i. 132.

[150] Schirach, 121.

[151] Huber, ii. 453.

[152] Bonner _On Bees_, 56.

[153] The same gentleman subsequently sent me the following memoranda.

July 10, 1820. A late second swarm was hived into a box constructed so that each comb could be taken out and examined separately. On the 7th of August the queen was removed, and each comb taken out and closely examined: there was not the least appearance of any royal cells, but much brood and eggs in the common ones. On the 14th, three royal cells were observed nearly finished, with a large grub in each. On the 16th, the three cells were sealed. On the 18th and 21st, they remained in the same state. On the 22d, two queens were found hatched, one was removed and the other left with the stock, the remaining royal cell being still closed. On the morning of the 23d, a dead queen was thrown out of the hive, upon which examination being made, the royal cell left closed on the 22d was found open, and a living queen in the stock which was allowed to remain.

[154] Huber, ii. 445.

[155] See J. Hunter's _Treatise on certain Parts of the Animal Œconomy_.

[156] _Philos. Trans._ 1792. viii. 167. Hunter _Treatise on certain Parts of the Animal Œconomy_, p. 65. Latham, _Synops._ ii. 672. _t._ 60.

[157] Reaum. v. 271--.

[158] Huber, i. 215--. Schirach asserts, that in cold weather the disclosure of the imago takes place two days later than in warm: and Riem, that in a bad season the eggs will remain in the cells many months without hatching. Schirach, 79. 241.

[159] Schirach, _t._ 3. _f._ 10.

[160] Huber, i. 224.

[161] Ουκ αγαθη ἡ πολυκοιρανιη, είς κοιρανος εςω.

[162] Schirach, 209, note *. Huber, i. 170--.

[163] Huber, i. 171--.

[164] Huber, i. 174.

[165] Huber, i. 186.

[166] Reaum. v. 268.

[167] Huber, i. 190.

[168] Huber, i. 256.

[169] Huber, i. 286.

[170] See above, p. 56.

[171] Huber, ii. 396--.

[172] Reaum. v. 262.

[173] Reaum. v. Pref. xv.

[174] Huber, i. 269.

[175] Huber, i. 322.

[176] Reaum. v. 265.

[177] VOL. I. 376--.

[178] Huber, i. 63--.

[179] Schirach, 257.

[180] Huber, i. 319--.

[181] This conjecture receives strong confirmation from the following observations of Sir E. Home, which I met with since it came into my mind. From the nipples present in man, which sometimes even afford milk, and from the general analogy between the male and female organs of generation, he supposes the germ is originally fitted to become either sex; and that which it shall be is determined at the time of impregnation by some unknown cause. _Philos. Trans._ 1799. 157.

[182] i. 106--.

[183] Schirach, 7. 13.

[184] Ibid. 13. Thorley, 105.

[185] Bonnet, x. 258, 8vo. ed.

[186] Huber, i. 122--.

[187] See above, p. 57.

[188] Keys _On Bees_, 76.

[189] Reaum. v. 611.

[190] Huber, i. 251.

[191] Some critics have found fault with Mr. Southey for ascribing, in his _Curse of Kehama_, to Camdeo, the Cupid of Indian mythology, a bow strung with bees. The idea is not so absurd as they imagine; and the poet doubtless was led to it by his knowledge of the natural history of these animals, and that they form themselves into strings or chaplets.--See Reaum. v. _t._ xxii. _f._ 3.

[192] Reaumur, 615-644.

[193]

"Alter erit maculis auro squalentibus ardens,
(Nam duo sunt genera) hic melior, insignis et ore,
Et rutilis clarus squamis: ille horridus alter
Desidiâ, latamque trahens inglorius alvum."
_Georg._ iv. 91--.

[194] Bees are generally thought to foresee the state of the weather: but they are not always right in their prognostics; for Reaumur witnessed a swarm, which after leaving the hive at half-past one o'clock were overtaken by a very heavy shower at three.

[195] Huber, i. 271.

[196] Huber, i. 305.

[197] Ibid. 280.

[198] Huber, i. 316.