Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 2.djvu/792

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W O R

tells with a wax lid. It fometimes happens, that the Worm ofthefe drones are lodged in cells no larger than thofe in which the Worms of the common bees arc placed. T. he bees who have the care of the young brood always are able to diftinguiih thefe however, and when they come to make the cover of the cell they always give them room by mak- ing it of a different form ; they do not extend a flat cruft over the mouth of the cell in this cafe, but raife a hol- lowed and elevated covering. The cells of the drones are eafily diftinguifhed from the" reft, by this ; and a whole fide of a comb is by this means often found to be the lodging of the drones only.

The eggs out of which the male bees are to be hatched, differ in nothing from the others, except that they are a little larger ; and the bees produced of the Worms hatched from them, are proportionably larger, as are alio the Worms themfelves when at their full growth. It fometimes hap- pens, however, that the male bees are no larger than the others ; feveral hives having been found with the males of this (mail kind. It fometimes happens that the female bee is obliged to depofit two, three, or even four eggs in one cell, through a fcarcity of cells at the time when it is ne- ceffary for her to lay ; but as thefe can never grow to their fufl fize in a third or fourth part of the room they fhould have, Mr. Reaumur is of opinion, that this is the caufe of the fmallnefs of thefe male bees ; and that in whatever hives they are found, the eggs have been left three or four in a cell.

The love that the working bees have for the young Worms hatched in the combs of their own hives appears very great, and their care of them the molt perfect in all their ftages that could be conceiyed ; but this love and tendernefs does not extend to the young ones of another hive. Mr. Reaumur tried the experiment, by putting into one of. his glafs hives part of the comb from another hive,, in which there were fome eggs and fome young Worms ; but while the bees of this hive were perfectly careful of their own young, they were cruel in the greateft degree to thefe, tear- ing them out of their cells, and carrying them out Of the hive, there leaving them to perifh. Reaumur's, Hiii. Inf. V. io. p. 267.

There are certain circumftances alfo, under which the bees are not lefs cruel, even to their own young: If it happen that a comb break, and a piece of it fall to the bottom of the hivg, the bees immediately gather about this fallen piece, and kill all the Worms that are in the cells of it, in the fame manner as they did the ftrangers, carrying them out of the hive. It fhould feem, that the creatures knew, that the want of the neceiTary heat which is found in the ! center of the hive would be the occafion of the death of thefe Worms before they could arrive at the bee ftate, and that in mercy to the creatures themfelves they at once put a period to a life, that could only be miferable, and pre- vented a great deal of unnecefiiiry trouble to themfelves, in feeding a number of creatures which never could come to perfection. It fometimes happens alio, that the bees kill and carry out of the hive the bodies of many of the Worms, while the combs all remain in their place, and no accident has happened to them. There are however very plain rea- ibns which may juftify this cruelty, fo very different from the general care and tendernefs they have for them. One of thefe may be, the neceflity of making a provifion for themfelves againft. the winter.

If the fcecundity of the female bee continue fo long, and be fo great, that all the: cells are filled with young ones, at a time when many of them muft of neceflity be filled with honey, for the fuftenance and fupport of the hive in winter, it will be found abfolutely neceilary that many of the cells rnuft be cleared of the Worms, in order to their being filled with the honey. The prefervation of the republic being the firft of all cares, this cruelty will be found juftifiable, rather than by a foolifh tendernels all fhould be left to perifh with hunger. This (laughter is plainly very often owing to this cauie, as it is feen to be made at fuch time as the winter is coming on ; and when there is prefent a feaibn admi- rably adapted to provide a fupply for it, by affording great opportunities of collecting a great deal of honey in a little time.

There is alfo another occafion, on which a mafTacre of this kind may be juftified on the principles of reafon. If a fe- male prove very prolific, and by any accident do not lay any eggs for the producing another female, or the egg or eggs of this kind which ihe does lay do not come to good, the young brood in this cafe cannot anfwer the general pur- pofe of nature in their production, that is the forming; a new (warm and raking care of a new offspring; and in this cafe, as they would live to no purpofe, it is not wrong in the bees who have the care of the young to deftroy all thefe, and make room by that means for a new brood born with happier circumftances.

It is very poffible alio, that the Worms may be liable to cer- tain diforders, which we can have no knowledge of; but in confequence of which they could only produce very feeble 3

and ufelefs bees : in this cafe, which the bees who have the eare of the young may eafily perceive, it would be no' im- proper method in them to deftroy in the //V/a- ftate what they forefaw would be of no ule to the commonwealth in the bee-ftate. Reaumur's Hift. Inf. V. 10. p. 273. Though the common bees refufe the care of fuch young ones as are taken out of other hives, and put into theirs, their rules however are not fo ftrict as to the breeding, no other young but thofe of their own hive ; for it has been found by experiments, that if all the bees of two hives be forced to make a change, and each fwarm to enter into, the hive belonging to the other, they will in this cafe take as much care of the young Worms they find in the combs, as they would have done of their own.-

If the common bees take all this care of the Worms which are to become working bees like themfelves. arrd even of thole which are to become drones which after a time they are to deftroy, there is no wonder that they take greater pains to ie-cure and bring up thofe Worms which are to 'be- come female bees ; of which they are fo very watchful and obfervant, that they feed theie Worms with the ut- moft care ; and when they have brought them up to that ftate when they arc to eat no longer but are to pais their laft change. into the chryfalis or nymph-ftate, they clofe up the aperture of the cell with a lid of wax ; in the making of which, they are not lefs prodigal of that choice and precious fubftance the wax, than they had be- fore been in the conftructing the cell. It takes as much wax to make one of the cells in which thefe females are to be brought up, as to make an hundred and fifty of the common cells ; this maybe found by weighing them againft: one another, and the cover or lid of the cell put on at the time of the transformation of the Worm bears the fame pro- portion to the covers of the other cells. Every thing that regards thefe creatures is managed with profuiion: Jn the common cells there is never found a drop of that liquid matter deftined for the food of the Worm, when it is ar- rived to the nymph'ftate, the bees never furaifhing it with a drop more than is abfo'utely neceflary ; but they give fo profufely to the Worm that is to become a female bee, that when it is changed into the nymph-ftate there is uiually found in the cell with it a quantity of this food equal to its own bulk.

This food feems alfo more nicely prepared, than that which is intended for the nouriihment of the other worms ; for if it be tafted, it is found very fweet and lufcious, but attem- pered with a fharpnefs like that of vinegar, and with a warmth, like that of pepper, or fome other fpice. It might be fuppofed from this food always found in -the cell with the royal or female nymph, that the creature in that ftate took in nourifhment ; but this is not the cafe, the nymph of the female bee can no more eat than any of the others ; but this mafs of food is ,of no injury to it in that ftate, as it does not fill up the whole cell as the others do, but has a great deal of room, and there is always a void fpace between it and the mafs of food. Reaumur's Hift. Inf. V. 10. p. 2^8.

The progrefs of the young bee from its ^ra-ftate, is this : When the: cover is fitted to the cell, the nymph makes its way out of the back of the fkin of the Worm ; it is at firft: perfectly white, but by degrees its eyes acquire a reddiih colour, and afterwards the ieveral parts of the body become more and more brown ; by degrees they all acquire their due ftrength and fohdity ; and when that is done, the bee appears out of its cafe, by burfting the thin membrane that covered it. The next omce then, is the getting out of -the clofe cell, which is a prifonto it; in order to render this eafy, the head of the bee is always fixed by the pofition of the nymph juft'under the center of the lid or; cover of the cell.

The firft bufinefs of the new-hatched bee is therefore with its teeth to eat a way through this covering ; this it does by flow degrees, firft forcing a fmall aperture, and afterwards by degrees enlarging that to a proper fize to let its head, and in fine its whole body, appear. This i&, -in favourable circumftances, that is when the day is favourable, and the young bee vigorous and- ftrong, the work of about three hours ; but at other times, it is half a day's work ; and in fome cafes is never perfected at all, the creature dyino- by that time it has made an aperture large enough to get its head out at, and perifhing with the head out and the body within the cell.

Swammerdam fuppofed, that the bees which placed the covers upon the cells, took them off again at a proper time ; but this is not at all confonant to reafon and experience, fince, were it fo, we could never find bees dead hi the po- fition juft defcribed. But Swammerdam living before the invention of glafs-hives, could only guefs at what we can now fee diftinctly performed under our eyes. As foon as the head and the fore-pair of legs are out, the difengaging the reft of the body is very eafy, as thefe legs being fixed on the outfide of the cell have fujficient force to pull up the reft. ,.

When