The Insect World: Being a Popular Account of the Orders of Insects

When the harvest has been abundant, many combs of closed cells may be found in each hive, perfect storehouses of abundance, furnished for the wants of the bad season. When the construction of the cells goes on well — often on the day after the bees have installed themselves in their hive — the queen goes out to meet the males. At the hour when these are accustomed to disport themselves in the sun, that is to say. from noon till five o'clock, she leaves the hive, whirls about for a few seconds, and disappears into the air. At the end of half an hour she returns, pregnant. , When the female returns to the hive, she is ^/le object of every attention, the workers pressing round her, and forming quite a train. Many approach her, and lick the surface of her body; others brush her, caress her, and present her their trunks full of honey. Forty-eight hours after her return to the hive the mother bee generally begins laying.* Running over the honeycomb, she deposits an egg in each empty cell, and fixes it to the bottom by means of a glutinous secretion, in such a way that the egg is suspended in the interior of the cell. They have the appearance of little oblong bodies, of a bluish white. If the queen, in a hurry to lay, lets more than one egg

• Not invariably, the period is often longer. — V.n.

fall into the same cell, the workers who accompany her hasten to carry out and destroy those that are in excess. This is often the case when the combs have not enough cells to contain all the eggs laid. We have said that the queen only lays worker eggs at this time; the others are laid later. She continues to lay until the cold weather approaches, when she ceases to do so, and does not resume her occupation until the return of spring. This laying is very abundant. The queen produces at least two hundred eggs a day; so that in the space of two months she lays more than twelve thousand. Towards the eleventh month of her existence in the perfect state, the queen begins laying the eggs which will produce males, their number varying from 1,500 to 3,000: the deposition of these eggs occupies about a month. T. owards the twentieth day, the workers lay the foundations of some royal cells. When these cells have attained a certain length, the queen deposits an egg in each, allowing, however, one or two days to intervene between the laying of these privileged eggs, so that the young queens to whom they are to give birth should not be hatched all at the same time, which would cause difficulties and even wars concerning the right of their succession to the throne. This complication human governments have not been always able to avoid, as history shows; but the bees have found out a way of doing so.

The distribution of the eggs in the cells is not left to chance. Each egg, according to the sex to which it belongs, is deposited in the cell which awaits it. The eggs of the females do not, however, differ in any way from those of the workers. The difference in their development depends entirely on the space and food allowed them.

We represent (Tig. 320) a portion of a comb containing the eggs ; i)laced in the cells, as also the royal cells. The regular order of laying is such as we have just described, but the result is quite different when the impregnation of the queen has been retarded by , an accidental captivity of two or three weeks. The longer this delay, 0 lithe greater will be the number of male eggs. If the queen is shut up i'.'for more than twenty days after her birth, she can then lay nothing |but male eggs during the remainder of her existence. It seems, also, V'that this delay troubles her intellect; for she then often makes /.blunders as to the cells. She lays the eggs of the males, or drones, ijiin the cradles prepared for the queens, and thus brings confusion into I'the future community. The eggs, once laid, are left to the care of the working bees, vvhich Reaumur called the nurses, in opposition to the wax-workers, which are employed in works of construction. According to many

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THE INSECT WORLD.

330

bee-keepers, and especially M. Hamet,* this division of duties is not positive. The young workers are the wax-workers; the old ones, collectors of honey, and nurses. However, when the honey-harvest is at its height, all the workers collect the spoil. Every individual is pressed into the service at the harvest time, as with men.

The eggs are not long in being hatched. From the moment when

Fig. 320, — Portion of the comb, with the eggs occupying the cells, One of the royal cells has been opened by the queen.

the larva comes out of the egg till that of its metamorphosis into a pupa, it keeps in its cell, rolled up, motionless as an Indian idol in its sacred temple. The working bees visit it from time to time, to st that it wants for nothing, and to renew its provisions. They al carefully inspect the different cells, and assure themselves of the goc condition of their nurslings. The pap which they give them as foi is whitish, and resembles paste made of flour. It is apparently a preparation of pollen, prepared in the body of the insect. As the larvre! increase in size, their food is made to acquire a more decided taste of j

** Couis d'Apiculture." In 8vo. Paris, 1864.

honey, and to become even slightly acid. It seems, then, that the bees know how to graduate the food of their larvae in such a manner as to bring it nearer by degrees to honey (Fig. 321).

In the space of live days the larvae are developed; they have absorbed all their pap, and have no need from that time of any nourishment, for they are about now to change into pupae. Now the nurses pay them a last attention. They wall them up in their cells, closing the openings with a waxen covering. The larvae then get close to the wax covering. In thirty-six hours they have spun for themselves a silky cocoon, in which they undergo their transformation into pupae. The moult, which Larfi^V the'Beeprecedes their metamorphosis, constitutes a crisis, as (magnified), with the caterpillars of Lepidoptera.

The perfect insect is hatched seven or eight days after its transformation into a pupa, the organs being developed little by little, and the young bee is then ready to appear in the broad daylight. It breaks through the thin transparent covering in which it is still swathed; then, with its mandibles, it pierces the operculum, or door of its prison, and opens a way for itself by which it can issue forth. With the assistance of its front legs it clings to the rim of the cell, and draws itself forward, till it has set free the whole of its body. The other bees lavish upon this newly-arrived little stranger all possible attention, to make its entrance into the world easy and agreeable; assisting and supporting it till it has become quite strong. It very soon becomes strong. If it is a working bee, it is not long in getting to work and in mixing with its companions in labour.

This is the way in which the hatching of ordinary bees takes place, workers and males; the first, twenty days after they are laid; the second, twenty-four days after. The rearing and birth of the young queens are slightly different. In proportion as the larvae increase in size do the workers enlarge the cells which contain them; and then again gradually diminish their size as the moment of their last metamorphosis approaches. A special and peculiar food is given to the larvce of the queens; it is quite different from that vhich is given to the larvae of the working bees, being a heavier and sweeter substance. This special food seems to exercise such an energetic influence on the development of the ovaries, that simple workers which have accidentally received any of it, during their larval state, become pregnant and lay a few eggs. But this anomalous development remains imperfect, because the prolific food was only administered in a small quantity. Besides which, the size of the cells is of great importance

to the development of the larvae imprisoned in them; and so the larvae of working bees, having lived in the small cells, can never attain the proportions of the queen, nor acquire her fecundity. But all this is changed if these larvae are moved into the large cells and fed on this royal pabulum; they then become veritable queens. If, with us, the coat does not make the man nor the frock the monk, it is certain that with the bees the cradle helps materially to make the queen.

When the queen through some accident or other has perished, the plebeian population of the hive very quickly perceive the misfortune, and without losing time in useless regrets, apply themselves to repair their loss. They choose the larva of a working bee, less than three days old, on which they bestow the treatment suited to change it into a female. The workers enlarge the cell of this grub by demolishing the surrounding cells, and administer to it a strong dose of royal food, to effect its transformation. This marvellous metamorphosis is accomplished like those which one reads of in fairy tales, where so many poor beggars are changed, by a wave of the hand, into beautiful princesses, covered with gold and precious stones. Only here the fairy tale is a true story; the poet's dream is a real phenomenon. According to Francis Huber, the larva intended to produce a female has to change its position. The workers add then to its domicile a sort of vertical tube, into which they push and turn round the young grub which is the hope of the community. For twelve days a bee, a sort of body-guard, has special charge of the person of our infant. It offers it food, and pays it many other delicate little attentions. When the moment for the metamorphosis has come, the orifice of the tube is closed, and the bees await the hatching of the new queen. Thus the loss of the queen is speedily replaced. The larvae of the queens, when they are shut up in their cells, have the head downwards, whilst the larvae of the males have the head upwards. Their hatching takes place thirteen days after the laying of the eggs. As soon as they have quitted their cradles, the young queens are ready to take flight. The others, workers and males, are less strongly organised. Before they are able to take a part in the sports and labours of the old ones they require a rest of twenty-four hours, during which the nurses lick them, brush them, and offer diem honey. But the young workers require to undergo no apprenticeship before they do the work which devolves upon them. They go straight to their work, and suppress all apprenticeship. Nature is their guide and counsellor. When the hatching has begun, each day adds some hundreds of