BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
This letter being filled only with descriptions of combats and lughvious scenes: I should give you, in closing, the account of some more pleasing and interesting fact relative to their industry. However, to avoid returning to duels and massacres, I shall here subjoin my observation upon the carnage of the males.
You remember, Sir, that all the observers of bees agree in saying that,
12 I speak here of the good reception given after an interregnum of 24 hours, by the bees to a strange queen substituted for their natural queen; but as this word reception is rather vague, it is proper to enter into some details to determine the sense which I give it.--On the 15th of August of this year, I introduced into one of my glass hives a fertile queen 11 months old. The bees had been deprived of queen for 24 hours, and in order to repair their loss, had already commenced the construction of 12 royal cells of the kind described in one of the preceding letters.--At the time when I placed this strange female upon the comb, the bees near her touched her with their antennae, passed their trunks over all parts of her body, and gave her honey; then they made way for others that treated her in exactly the same way. All those bees vibrated their wings at the same time and ranged in a circle around their sovereign. Hence resulted a sort of agitation which gradually communicated to the workers situated on the same side of the comb, and induced them to come and see, in their turn, what was happening. They soon arrived, broke through the circle formed by the first, touched the queen with their attense, gave her some honey, and after this little ceremony they retired behind the others and enlarged the circle. They vibrated their wings, fldgeted without disorder, without tumult, as if experiencing some very agreeable sensation.--The queen had not yet left the spot where I had put her, but after a quarter-hour she began to walk. The bees, far from opposing her motion, opened the circle in the direction which she took, followed her, and stood in a line about her. She was oppressed with the need of laying and dropped her eggs. Lastly, after an abode of 4 hours, she began to deposit male eggs in the large cells that she met.
While these events passed on the surface of the comb where I had placed the queen, all was perfectly quiet on the opposite side: it appeared as if the workers there were unconscious of the arrival of a queen in their hive; they worked with great activity upon the royal cells as if ignorant that they no longer needed them; they cared for the royal worms, brought jelly to them, &c. But, at length, the new queen passed to their side; she was received by them with the same eagerness that she had experienced from their companions on the first side of the comb; they stood in line, gave her honey, touched her with their antennae; and what proves better that they treated her as a mother was their immediate desisting from work at the royal cells; they removed the royal worms and atc the pap which they had accumulated around them. From this moment the queen was recognized by all her people, and behaved in her new habituation as she would have done in her native hive.
These details appear to give a fairly correct idea of the manner in which the bees welcome a strange queen, when they have had time to forget their own. They treat her exactly as if she was their natural queen, except that, in the first instant there may be more warmth, or if I dare so express, more demonstrations. I am conscious of the improprlety of these expressions, but Mr. de Reaumur has in some manner consecrated them: he does not hesitate to say that the bees give their queen care, respect and homage, and from his example, these same expressions have escaped most authors who have spoken about bees.
answer. However, I have made an observation which may lead some day to the solution of the problem. The bees never kill the males in the hives deprived of queens; on the contrary they find there a safe asylum, while a horrible massacre prevails in other places; they are tolerated and fed, and a great many are seen, even in January. They are also preserved in the hives which, without a queen properly so called, have among them some individuals of that sort of bees that lay eggs of males, and in those whose _half fertile_ queens, if I may so express it, engender only drones. Therefore, the massacre takes place only in the hives whose queens are completely fertile, and it never begins until the season of swarms is past.
I have the honor of being &c.
SEVENTH LETTER.
_Continuation of the Experiments on the Reception of a Stranger Queen: Observations of Mr. de Reaumur Upon This Subject._
Pregny, August 30, 1791.
Sir, I have often told you how much I admired Mr. de Reaumur's memoirs upon bees. I am glad to repeat that, if I have made any progress in the art of observing, I am indebted for it to the profound study of the works of this excellent naturalist. In general his authority is so powerful that I can hardly trust my own experiments when the results are different from those obtained by him. So, when I find myself in opposition to the historian of bees, I repeat my experiences, vary the processes, examine with the utmost caution all the circumstances that might mislead me, and never interrupt my labors until I have acquired the moral certainty of not being mistaken. With the help of these precautions, I have recognized the correctness of Mr. de Reaumur's eyes, and I have a thousand times seen, that if certain experiments seemed to combat them, it was from incorrect execution. Yet, I must except some cases, in which my results have been constantly different from his. Those exposed in my previous letter, on the manner in which the bees receive a strange queen in place of their accustomed one, are of that number.
After having removed the queen of a hive, if I at once substituted a strange one, the usurper was ill-received, they surrounded her, balled her, and often ended by smothering her. I could succeed only, in making them adopt a new queen, by waiting 20 to 24 hours, to introduce her. At the end of that time, they appeared to have forgotten their own queen, and received with respect any female put in her place. Mr. de Reaumur says, on the contrary, that if we remove the queen from the bees and give them another at once, she will be well received. To prove this, he gives the details of an experiment, that one should read in his own work (Quarto edition, tome V, page 258); I will give only an extract from it: he induced four or five hundred bees to leave their hive and enter a glass box, in which he had fixed a small piece of comb towards the top; at first they were much agitated; to quiet them he tried to offer them a new queen. From that time, the tumult ceased, and the foreign queen was received with due respect.
I do not contest the result of this experiment, but in my opinion it does not warrant the conclusion drawn by Mr. de Reaumur: the apparatus employed removed the bees too far from their natural situation, to enable him to judge of their instinct and dispositions. In other circumstances, he has himself seen that bees reduced to small numbers lose their industry, their activity, and imperfectly continue their ordinary labors. Thus their instinct is modified by each operation that reduces them to too small a number. To render such an experiment truly conclusive, it should then be made in a populous hive, removing from that hive her native queen, and immediately substituting a stranger; I am persuaded that, in such a case, Mr. de Reaumur would have seen the bees imprison the queen, ball her for 15 or 18 hours at least, and often end by suffocating her. He would not have witnessed a favorable reception of a strange queen, until he had waited 24 hours before introducing her in the hive, after the removal of the native queen. No variation took place in the result of my experiments in this regard: their number and the attention with which they were made make me presume that they merit your confidence.
In another passage of the Memoir already quoted (page 267) Mr. de Reaumur ahfirms that _the bees having a queen with which they are pleased are nevertheless disposed to give the best possible reception to a strange female seeking refuge among them._ In my previous letter, I have related to you, Sir, my experiments on this fact; their success was very different from that of Mr. de Reaumur. I have proved that the workers never use their stings against any queen, but this is far from a welcome to a stranger queen; they retain her within their ranks, they press her in their ranks and appear to give her freedom only when she prepares to combat the reigning queen. But this observation can be made only in our thinnest hives. Those of Mr. de Reaumur had at least 2 parallel combs; and through this disposition he could not see some very important circumstances which influence the conduct of the workers when they are given several females. He mistook for ceresses the circles which they form at first around a strange queen; and if the queen advanced a little between the combs, it was impossible for him to see that those rings, which were always contracting, ended in the restraint of the female enclosed within them. Had he used thinner hives, he would have seen that what he supposed to be the signs of a welcome was but the prelude of a real imprisonment.
I am reluctant to say that Mr. de Reaumur was mistaken; but I cannot admit with him that in certain occasions the bees tolerate in their hives a plurality of females. The experiment upon which he bases this assertion cannot be considered decisive. In the month of December he introduced a strange queen in a glass hive placed in his cabinet, and confined her there. The bees could carry nothing out, the stranger was well received; her presence awakened the workers from their torpdness, into which they did not relapse. She excited no carnage, the number of dead bees on the bottom board did not sensibly increase, and no dead queens were found. In order to draw from this observation any consequence favorable to the plurality of queens, it was necessary to ascertain whether the hive still had its native queen, when the new queen was introduced; the author neglected this precaution; it is very probable that the hive which he mentions had lost its queen, since the bees were languid, and the presence of a straner restored their activity.
I hope, Sir, that you will pardon this slight criticism. Far from seeking faults in the works of our celebrated Reaumur, I had the greatest pleasure when my observations agreed with his, and more especially when my experiments justified his conjectures. But it was necessary to point out the cases in which the imperfection of his hives led him into error and to explain from what reasons, I did not see certain facts in the same manner that he did. I desire especially to merit your confidence and I am aware that I need the greatest efforts when I must combat the historian of the bees. I confide in your judgment, Sir, and ask you to accept the assurance of my respect, &c.
## 11 EIGHTH LETTER
_Is the Queen Bee Oviaparous? Researches Upon the Manner in Which the Worms of the Bees Spin Their Cocoons. What Is the Influence of the Size of the Cells Upon the Bees That Hatch in Them?_
Pregny, September 4, 1791.
Sir, I shall gather together in this letter several isolated observations, relative to divers points of the history of bees in which you desired me to engage. You desired me to seek whether the queen be really oviparous. Mr. de Reaumur has not decided this question, he even says that he never saw a worm hatch; he only affirms that worms are found in cells where eggs were deposited three days previously. You understand, sir, that in order to seize the moment when the worm emerges from the egg, we must not confine ourselves to observations within the hive; for the continual motion of the bees does not permit us to see precisely what passes at the bottom of the cells. The eggs must be taken out, placed upon a strip of glass under the microscope, and every change which they undergo attentively watched.
There is still one other precaution to take: as a certain degree of heat is necessary for them to hatch, if the eggs were too soon deprived of it, they would wither and perish. The only method to succeed in seeing the worm come out, consists therefore in watching the queen while she lays, marking the eggs which she has just deposited so as to recognize them, and remove them from the hive to place them upon a strip of glass, only an hour or two before the three days elapse. Thus the worms will certainly hatch, for they will have enjoyed the necessary heat as long as possible. Such is the course which I followed. Here is the result.
In the month of August we removed a few cells, containing eggs laid three days previously; we cut down the walls of all those cells and placed upon a glass slide the pyramidal bottom on which the eggs were fixed. Slight motions of curving and of straightening were soon perceptable in one of the eggs; at first the lens did not show us any external organization on the surface of the egg; the worm was entirely concealed by its pellicle: we placed it then upon the focus of a very powerful lens; but while we were preparing this apparatus, the worm burst the imprisoning membrane, and cast off a part of its envelope; we saw it torn and crumpled on some parts of its body and more particularly upon its last rings; the worm, by lively action, curved and straightened itself alternately and occupied 20 minutes in concluding the casting off of its skin; its lively exertions ceased then, it lay down, bent its body in a curve and seemed to take a needed rest. This worm proceeded from an egg laid in a worker cell and would have become a worker.
We next directed our attention upon the moment when a male worm was to hatch. We exposed it to the sun on a glass slide, and with the help of a good lens we discovered 9 rings of the worm under the transparent pellicle of the egg; this membrane was still entire; the worm was completely motionless: we distinguished the two longitudinal lines of the trachea, and many of their ramifications. We did not lose sight of the egg a single instant and this time noticed the first motions of the worm. The large end curved and straightened alternately and almost touched the base upon which its point was fixed. These efforts burst the membrane first at the upper part, towards the head, then on the back, and afterwards in all the parts successively. The crumpled pellicle remained in lumps on different parts of the body, then fell off. So it is positive that the queen is oviparous.
Some observers state that the workers care for the eggs laid by the queen before the worms hatch, and it is true that, at any time that we examine the hive, we always see workers with their head and thorax inserted in the cells containing eggs and remaining motionless in that position for several minutes. It is impossible to see what they do, because their body conceals the interior of the cell. But it is easy to ascertain that, when they assume this attitude, they are not caring for the eggs. If we enclose eggs in a grated box at the moment when the queen has laid them, and deposit them in a strong hive, so they may have the necessary degree of bent, they hatch at the usual time, just as if they had been left in the cells. So they have no need of particular care from the bees to hatch them.
I have reason to believe that, when the workers enter the cells and remain there 15 or 20 minutes, it is only to repose from their flight and their labors. My observations on this subject are very definite. You know, Sir, that bees sometimes construct cells of irregular shape against the panes of the hive; these cells, glazed on one side, are very convenient to the observer, since all that passes within them is exposed. I have often seen bees enter such cells when nothing could attract them there; they were finished cells and yet contained neither eggs nor honey. Therefore the workers came thither only to enjoy some instants of rest. Indeed, they would remain for 15 or 20 minutes in them, so motionless, that one might have thought them dead, had not the dilation of their rings showed that they were breathing. This need of repose is not special with the workers, the queens also, sometimes, enter the big male cells and remain long motionless. This attitude prevents the bees from paying full homage to them; yet, even in these circumstances, the workers do not fail to circle around them and to brush the part of their belly which remains uncovered.
The drones do not enter the cells, when they wish to rest, but they cluster against one another on the combs, and sometimes remain in this position for 18 or 20 hours, without the slightest motion.
As it is important, in several experiments, to know exactly the length of time that the three sorts of worms exist, before assuming their ultimate shape, I shall here subjoin my particular observations on this subject.
Worm of worker. Three days in the egg state, five days in the worm state, at the end of which time the bees close its cell with a wax covering; the worm then begins to spin its silk cocoon, in which operation 36 hours are consumed. Three days later, it metamorphoses into a nymph and spends seven days and a half in this form; so it reaches its last state, that of a bee, on the 20th day of its life, counting from the moment the egg was laid.
The royal worm also passes 3 days in the egg, and 5 as a worm: after these 8 days, the bees close its cell and it begins at once to spin its cocoon, which operation occupies 24 hours. It remains in complete repose during the 10th and 11th day and even during 16 hours of the 12th. Then it transforms into a nymph and spends 4 days and a third in this shape. Thus it is in the 16th day of its life that it reaches the state of perfect queen.
The male worm. Three days in the egg, six and a half as worm: it changes into a winged insect only the 24th day after the laying of the egg.
Although the worms of bees are apod, they are not condemned to absolute immobility in their cells: they advance in a spiral. This motion, so slow during the first 3 days that it can hardly be perceived, afterwards becomes more evident: I have seen them perform two complete revolutions in an hour and three quarters. When the end of their metamorphosis approaches, they are only two lines from the orifice of the cell. The position which they assume is always the same, they are bent in an arc. It follows that, in the horizontal cells, such as those of workers or of drones, the larvae are perpendicular to the horizon; on the contrary, in the royal cells, the worms are placed horizontally. It might be thought that the difference of position has great influence on the increment of the various larva, yet it has none. By reversing combs containing common cells of brood, I brought the worms to a horizontal position, but they did not suffer in their development. I have also turned the royal cells so that their worms were placed vertically, and their growth was neither less speedy nor less perfect.
I have paid a great deal of attention to the manner in which the worms spin the silk of their cocoons, and I witnessed in this matter new and interesting peculiarities. The worms of workers and of males spin complete cocoons in their cells, that is, closed at both ends and surrounding the whole body; the royal worms, on the other hand, spin only incomplete cocoons, that is, they are open at the posterior part and envelope only the head, thorax and first ring of the abdomen. The discovery of this difference in the shape of the cocoon, which may at first seem too minute, gave me extreme pleasure, as it evidently shows the admirable art with which nature connects the various traits of the industry of bees.
You remember, Sir, the proofs which I have given you of the mutual aversion of queens, of their combats, and of the animosity with which they seek to destroy one another. When there are several royal nymphs in a hive, the first one transformed into a queen attacks the others and pierces them with her sting. But she could not succeed in this, if they were enveloped in a complete cocoon. Why? Because the silk that the worms weave is so strong that the cocoon is of a close tissue, and the sting could not penetrate through it; or if it did, the queen could not withdraw it, because the barbswould be retained by the meshes of the cocoon, and she would thus perish, a victim of her own fury. Thus, that she may destroy her rivals, it is necessary that their posterior parts be uncovered; the royal nymphs must therefore weave incomplete cocoons; take note, please, that it is the last rings which must remain uncovered, for they are the only part which the sting can penetrate; the head and the thorax are covered with scalp plates which it cannot pierce.
Hitherto, Sir, observers have called for our admiration of nature, in her care for the multiplication and preservation of the species, but in the facts which I relate, we must admire also her precautions in exposing certain individuals to a mortal danger.
The details on which I have just entered clearly indicate the final cause of the opening which the royal worms leave in their cocoons, but they do not show us whether it is in obedience to a particular instinct that they do so, or whether the widening of their cells prevents them from stretching the threads in the upper part. This question interested me very much. The only way to decide it was to observe the worms while they spin, which could not be done through their opaque cells: it occurred to me to dislodge them and introduce them into glass tubes, which I had caused to be blown in exact imitation of the different kinds of cells. The most difficult part was to draw them from their habitation and place them into these new domiciles. Burnens performed this operation with much address; he opened in my hives several sealed royal cells; selecting the time when we knew that they were about to begin their cocoons, he took them out cautiously, and introduced one in each of my glass cells, without doing them any harm.
We soon saw them prepare their work: they began by stretching the anterior part of their body in a straight line, leaving their posterior part curved, thus forming an arc of which the longitudinal sides of the cell were tangents, and afforded two points of support. Being sufficiently supported in this position, their head was next brought to the different parts of the cell which it could reach, and carped the surface with thick silk. We noticed that they did not stretch their threads from one wall to the other, which they could not do, because, being obliged to sustain themselves by keeping their posterior rings curved, the free and movable part of their body was not long enough to admit of their mouth fixing threads upon diametrically opposite sides. You have not forgotten, Sir, that the royal cells are in the shape of a pyramid, the base of which is broad, with a long and thin point. Those cells are placed vertically in the hives, with their base at the top, and the point below. In this position, you will conceive, the royal worm can sustain itself only when the curve of its posterior part secures two points of support, and it cannot obtain this support unless it rests upon the lower part or near the point. Thus, if it wanted to ascend towards the wide end, to spin a thread, it could not reach both walls, because too far apart. It could not touch one side with its tip, the other with its back, consequently it would tumble down. I made positively sure of this by placing a few royal worms in glass cells that were too large, and the diameter of which was greater towards the point than in ordinary cells: there they were unable to sustain themselves.