The sole functions of the queen bee are to perpc tuate her species ; but single and unassisted by the t workers, herself and her offspring would perish. Her fecundity is surprizing. Swammerdam affirms, that she contains 50,000 eggs; and some authors advance, that she may be the mother of 100,000 bees in one season. In addition to the peculiarities exhibited in her propagating young, she is marked by others of the most conspicuous description. She is watched and attended to ; and, to judge from appearances, sheltered and respected by the workers. Groups of ' them constantly encircle her ; they supply her with honey, brush and lick her limbs; whenever she moves, they recede before her ; and, according to the united sentiments of all who have studied the nature of bees, pay her what would be called real homage, could we allow them the prerogative of understanding. She is an object of the greatest attachment ; her presence inspires them with new instincts, and animates them to labour : the permanent existence of a queen, in short, is the only security of the workers. Except ing when she leaves the hive for fecundation, they clus ter around her; and hence some persons have endeavour ed to impose on the credulous, as having a command or power over bees. It is true that such persons could make a whole swarm follow them from place to place without injury to themselves or the spectator ; but the sole secret consisted in their having obtained possession of the queen. The natives of foreign countries are acquainted with this attachment of the workers to their queen, which some years since was exhibited in Britain under mysterious disguise, as Labat, long ago, relates in his Travels. He received a visit from a man who called himself master (?f• the bees. " It is certain they followed him as sheep *do their shepherd, and even more closely. His cap in particular was covered in such a manner, that it ex actly resembled those swarms which, in endeavouring to settle, fix on some -branch of a tree. Being de sired to take it off, he did so, whereupon the bees settled on his shoulders, his head, and his hands, with out stinging him or those in the vicinity. All fol lowed him when he retired ; for besides those which he carried about, they attended him in legions." People accustomed to handle bees with address, can easily seize the queen, and then, as during swarming, little is to be apprehended from the bees attempting to sting ; they are too much occupied in regarding their queen.
Though the queen lays several eggs, which will be successively transformed into queens, only one in its perfect state can exist in a swarm : a plurality seems equally adverse to the intention of Nature as a total defect. Hence it follows, that of two coming at the same time into existence, one must die for the welfare of the community. But the charge of accomplish ing the destruction of the victim is not confided to the common bees ; the queens themselves are entrust ed with it. 'Were it otherwise ordained, dangerous •consequences might be the result ; for while one group of bees destroyed the first of two queens, another might massacre the second, and the hive be ing thus deprived of both, would perish. Nature has therefore inspi.ed queens with the most dead]' ani mosity, and the most insatiable thirst for each others life, which nothing but actual death can appease.
The same intelligent naturalist, M. Huber, to whose authority we frequently recur, gives an interesting account of the combats of queens, part of which we shall abbreviate. In one of his hives fittest for ob. servation, two young queens left their cells almost at the same moment. Whenever they observed each other, they rushed together apparently with great fury, and came into such a position that the antenna) were mutually seized by their fangs. The head, breast, and belly of the one, were opposed to the head, breast, and belly of the other. The extremity of their bodies had only to be curved, that they might be reciprocally pierced with the stings, and both fall dead together. But nature has not decreed that the two Combatants should perish in the duel : when in the position now described, they separate, and retreat with the utmost precipitation ; and when these rivals felt their extremities about to meet, they disengaged themselves, and each fled away. A few minutes after separating, however, their mutual terror ceased, and they again began to seek each other. Immediately on coming in sight, they again rushed together, seiz ed one another, and resumed exactly their former po sition. The result of this rencounter was the same : when their bellies approached, they hastily disengaged themselves, and precipitately retreated. During all this time the workers were in great agitation ; and the tumult seemed to increase when the adversaries separated. Twice they interrupted the flight of the queens, seized their limbs, and restrained them prison ers about a minute. At last, that queen which was either the strongest or the most enraged, darted on her rival at a moment when unperceived, and with her fangs took hold of the origin of her wing, then rising above her, she curved her own body, and inflicted a mortal wound. She withdrew her sting, and likewise quitted the wing she had seized : the vanquished queen fell down ; dragged herself languidly along ; and her strength declining, she soon expired. Ano ther experiment, equally interesting, on the mutual an tipathy of queens, elucidates the instinct of the com mon bees, and seems to prove that they are aware of the necessity that such combats should have a fatal issue. M. Huber having painted the thorax of a
queen, on purpose that she might be recognised, in troduced her into a hive already provided with the natural queen. A circle of bees quickly formed around the stranger, but not to caress or receive her with that grateful homage which a queen is wont to experience ; on the contrary, they insensibly accumu lated to such a degree, and encompassed her so closely, that scarce a minute elapsed before she lost her liber ty, and became a prisoner. By a remarkable concur rence, the workers at the same time collected around the reigning queen, and restrained all her motions : she was instantly confined like the stranger. But as if the bees anticipated the combat in which these queens were about to engage, and were impatient to witness its issue, they retained them prisoners only when pre paring to withdraw from each other ; and if one less restrained seemed desirous of approaching her rival, all the bees clustering together gave way, to allow her full liberty for the attack : then if the queens tes tified a disposition to fly, they returned to enclose them. These facts form a singular anomaly in the history of bees. That they take a decided part on the occurrence of such combats, is indubitable ; but if they mean to accelerate them, how shall we ac count for the uncommon care and attention, on every other occasion, bestowed on their queen, being now forgotten, and for their opposing her preparations to avoid impending danger ? The cluster of bees that here surrounded the reigning queen having permitted her some freedom, she appeared to advance towards thit part of the comb on which her rival stood. All the bees receded before her : the multitude of work ers between the adversaries gradually dispersed, un til only two remained : these also removed, and al lowed the queens to come in sight. At this moment the reigning queen rushed on the stranger, and fixing her against the comb, mortally pierced herbody with her sting. • The mutual antipathy manifested by queens, is not limited to their perfect state, for it extends to nymphs yet in the cells. The future existence of a rival, which may dispute her place in the hive, seems to ex cite apprehension in a queen already come to matu rity. The oldest queen in a hive containing five • or six royal cells, having undergone her ultimate meta morphosis, hastened, within ten minutes of escaping from her confinement, to visit the cells of the rest still close. She furiously attacked that nearest to her, and, by dint of labour, succeeded in opening the top : then she began tearing the silk of the coccoon ; but her ef-• forts being probably inadequate to her purpose, she. sought the other end of the cell, where she effected a. larger aperture. When of sufficient size, she endea voured to introduce her belly ; and after many exer tions, succeeded in giving her approaching rival a• deadly wound. When she left the cell, the bees,. which had hitherto been spectators of her labour, be gan to enlarge the opening, and drew forth the body. of a queen scarcely come from the nymphine state. Meanwhile the victorious young queen attacked ano ther royal cell ; but did not endeavour to introduce her sting : it contained only a nymph, and not a per fect queen as the former did. Hence it has bee:) conjectured, that the nymphs of queens inspire less ani, mosity : still they do not escape destruction, for when, ever a royal cell is opened before its proper time, the. workers extract the contents in•whatever form. they appear, whether worm, nymph, or queen.. Accord, ingly when the young queen had here abandoned the second cell, the opening which she had. made was enlarged by the bees, and they extracted the included nymph. Nymphs of other hives, introduced into one where there is a are equally the subject of ani mosity. But id this general work of destruction, there is a fact,' in the natural history of bees in their earlier stages, elucidated, which we should otherwise find it difficult to explain. The larva: of the whole three species are endowed with a property widely diffused among insects, that of spinning silk. Each as we have before observed, spins itself a web or coccoon, in.which it reposes a certain time inactive, previous to transformation to the perfect state. The Ian= of workers and males, spin complete coccoons close at ' both ends ; the coccoons of queens are imperfect, co vering only the head, thorax, and first ring of the abdomen. Nor can the larva do otherwise ; the par ticular form and position of the cell force it to leave the ends of the coccoon open, while in the natural state ; but if removed from it, and situated in the same circumstances as the larvae of males and work ers, a complete coccoon is fabricated, in which the animal is fully enveloped. But the purpose of the open coccoon is only now to be discovered ; it is, that the inclosed nymph may be exposed, without re sistance, to the deadly jealousy of its rivals. Were it close, the sting of the queen, which seems never to be used excepting to destroy,her own species, might be entangled in the silk, by which she herself might be come the sacrifice, and occasion the loss of. the whole hive.