Page:Jardine Naturalist's library Bees.djvu/51

 them." The communication made by these means is quickly disseminated, and in a few minutes the whole colony is in a state of agitation and distress. Of the antennæ being employed as instruments of recognition, the same naturalist gives a striking instance, which our limits prohibit us from giving in his own words; suffice it to say here, that by means of a wire grating, wide enough only to admit the circulation of air, inserted in the middle of the hive, he separated the queen from the half of her subjects, and ascertained that neither sight, hearing, nor smell made the near neighbourhood of their sovereign known to them, for they proceeded to rear a new queen from the larva of a worker, as if the other were irrecoverably lost. But when he substituted a grating wide enough to allow the transmission of the antennæ, all went on as usual, for the bees soon ascertained by these organs the existence of their queen.

Another important use which the bees make of this organ of touch deserves notice. "Let us follow their operations by moonshine, when they keep watch at the opening of the hive to prevent the intrusion of moths then on the wing. It is curious to observe how artfully the moth knows to profit to the disadvantage of the bees which require much light for seeing objects, and the precautions taken by the latter in reconnoitering and expelling so dangerous an enemy. Like vigilant sentinels, they patrole around their habitations withtheir antennæ stretched out straight before them, or turning to right and left; woe to the moth if it cannot escape their contact; it tries to glide along between