When I was called upon to remove a queen, I perceived that this could not be done without causing agitation among the bees; in such an operation one is always compelled to open the hive and consequently throw upon the combs the light of day and outside air which differs much in temperature from that of their hive. There is no resistance from the bees when we put out the hand to seize the queen, but the bees surrounding her might be affected by this removal: in order to dispel all doubts and all exciting circumstances I employed a process which would leave no uncertainty. I divided the hive into two equal parts by means of a grated partition; this was done with so much celerity and care that no disturbance was noticed at the time of this operation, and that not a single bee was wounded. The bars of this grating were too close for passage of the bees from one to the other side; but admitted the free circulation of air in all parts of the hive. I did not know which half contained the queen, but the tumult and the buzzing in N\({}^{\circ}\) 1 soon apprized me that she was in N\({}^{\circ}\) 2, where tranquility prevailed. I then closed the entrances of both, so that the bees seeking their queen should not find her, but I made sure that outside air should continue to circulate in the hives. At the end of two hours the bees calmed and order was restored. On the 14th, we visited hive N\({}^{\circ}\) 1 and found 3 royal cells begun. On the 15th we opened the entrances of both hives; the bees went to the field and we noticed that they did not mix, upon their return, and that those of each half kept to their respective hives. On the 24th we found two dead queens at the entrance of hive N\({}^{\circ}\) 1, and in examining the combs we found the young queen that had killed them. On the 30th, she emerged from the hive and was decundated and thenceforth the success of the swarm was assured. The apertures which I had preserved in the partition allowed the bees of hive N\({}^{\circ}\) 1 to communicate with their old queen by means of smell, hearing or any unknown sense; they were separated from her only by a space not exceeding a third or a fourth of an inch, which they could not pass, yet they had become agitated, had constructed royal cells and reared young queens, therefore they had conducted themselves just as if their queen had been truly taken away and lost to them forever. This observation proves that it is not by means of sight, hearing or smell that the bees notice the presence of their queen; another sense is necessary; but since the grating used in this occasion had only removed the contact with her, is it not probable that they must touch her with their antennae in order to make sure of her presence among them, and that it is through the use of this organ that the feeling of their combs, of their companions, of their brood and of their queen is communicated to them? However in order to obtain complete satisfaction on this point, it was necessary to know whether the bees would become agitated in case the meshes of the grating were of such condition as to allow them to pass their antennae into the part in which the queen was confined. For this purpose we removed a pane from one of my glass hives and substituted a box of equal dimension, closed on the hive side with a grating that would not enable them to pass their heads through, but would allow the passage of the antennae. The other side of the box was closed by a movable glass partition. As we did not wish to excite the bees, Instead of opening the hive to * remove the queen, we waited until she placed herself on a comb in view; we then opened the glass partition and took her from among her escort without alarming them. She was immediately confined in the glass box destined to receive her; but in order that she might not suffer from a condition so different from what she had been accustomed to, some bees of the same hive were enclosed with her, from which she received the ordinary care. We remarked from the first that the distress commonly following the departure or loss of the queen was not manifested in this occasion; everything remained in order; the bees did not forsake their brood a single instant; their labors were not interrupted; and when we opened the hive, 48 hours later, we did not find any royal cells begun; the bees had made no arrangements to procure another queen. Thus all the bees knew that they had no need to replace her, that she was not lost, and when we returned her to them they did not treat her as a stranger, but seemed to recognize her at once and we saw her lay eggs in the midst of a surrounding circle of workers. The means of communication with the queen that these bees employed were very remarkable; an infinite number of antennae thrust through the screen and turning in all directions plainly indicated that the workers were concerned about their mother; she acknowledged their eagerness in the most decided manner; she was nearly always fixed on the grating, crossing her antennae with those so evidently seeking her; the bees attempted to pull her through; their legs passed through the meshes seized those of the queen and firmly held them; we even saw their trunks introduced through the meshes so that she was fed by her subjects from within the hive. How can we doubt, after this, that the queen and the workers preserved a communication by the mutual touch of the antennae, and that, knowing she was so near, the latter felt that there was no necessity of providing another queen. It seems impossible now to assert that her odor had indicated her presence to the bees; however in order to acquire additional evidence I repeated the same expriment by enclosing the queen so that her odor only could reach them. I took the queen of one of my leaf hives and had her introduced into a box composed of a double screen the meshes of which were too distant for the operation of the antennae; the result was such as we had foreseen; after an hour of quiet the bees became agitated, abandoned their labors and their young, emerged from the hive and afterwards returned, and tranqullity was restored after two or three hours. On the day following, we examined the combs and recognized the rudiments of eight or ten royal cells, which had been commenced the preceding evening; demonstrating that the bees had believed their queen lost, though she was among them. Her emanations, therefore, had not been sufficient to undecieve them; they required actual contact with her to be assured of her presence. But since every bee cannot be in all parts of the hive, we must admit likewise that they communicate their disquiet to each other and labor in common to repair their loss. If we could still be in doubt about the part that touch fills in the laborsof the hive and the intercommunications of these insects, it would only be necessary to read the following experiments. Those which we had attempted upon the antennae of the queen will be recollected. The amputation of a single one of those organs brought no change in their behavior, but when both antennae were cut off at their base, those beings so privileged, those mothers so much the object of consideration in their homes lost all their influence, even the instinet of maternity disappeared; instead of laying their eggs in the cells they dropped them here and there, they forgot their mutual hate, queens deprived of their antennae passed by one another without recognizing each other, and the workers themselves seemed to participate in their indifference, as if nothing but the agitation of the queen had warned them of the danger to the colony.