BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
When speaking, in my third letter, of those females that lay only drone eggs, I recorded my surprise that bees bestow such care upon those deposited in royal cells, the assiduity with which they feed the worms which hatch from them, and the sealing under which they enclose them when nearing the term of their growth; but I do not know, Sir, why I forgot to tell you that, after having sealed those cells, the workers braid (guilloehe) them and incubate them until the last transformation of the males which they contain. Their treatment of the royal cells in which fertile workers have laid eggs of drones, is very different; they begin, indeed, by bestowing every care upon the eggs and the worms that inhabit them; they close the cells in suitable time; but they never fall to destroy them 3 days after having sealed them.
After having successfully finished these experiments, I had still to discover the cause of the development of the sexual organs of fertile workers. Mr. Reim did not engage in this interesting problem, and at first I feared that I might have no other guide to its solution than my conjectures. However, after long reflection, I perceived, in the connection of the facts of which this letter gives the details, a light to indicate the progress to be followed in this new research.
Since the beautiful discoveries of Mr. Schirach, it is beyond all doubt that the common bees are originally of the female sex; nature has given them the germs of ovaries; but she has permitted their expansion only in the particular case where those bees receive, in their worm form, a special food. So we must examine, especially, whether our fertile workers have received this special food, in the worm state.
All my experiments convinced me that bees capable of laying are born only in hives that have lost their queen. In such case, they prepare a large quantity of royal jelly, to feed the worms destined to replace her. Therefore, if fertile workers are born only in these circumstances, it is evident that they appear only in the hives whose bees prepare royal jelly. It was upon this circumstance, Sir, that I bent all my attention. It induced me to suspect that when bees give the royal treatment to certain worms, they, by accident or by a particular instinct the principle of which I do not know, drop some small particles of royal jelly into the cells next to those contain
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ing the worms intended for queens. The worms of workers that have accidentally received small doses of so active an aliment, must be more or less influenced by it: their ovaries must acquire some sort of development; but this development will be imperfect. Why? Because the royal food has been administered only in small doses, and besides, the worms in question having lived in cells of the smaller diameter, their parts could not enlarge beyond the ordinary proportions. The bees born from those worms will therefore have the size and all the exterior characters of simple workers; but they will have in addition the faculty of laying a few eggs, solely from the effect of the small portion of jelly mixed with their other food.
In order to judge of the correctness of this explanation, it was necessary to follow the fertile workers from their birth, to investigate whether the cells in which they are raised are constantly in the vicinity of the royal cells, and whether the pap fed to them is mixed with particles of the royal jelly. Unfortunately this part of the experiment is very difficult to perform. When pure, the royal jelly is recognized by its tartish and pungent taste, but when mixed with some other substance, its savour is imperfectly distinguished. I therefore confined myself to the examination of the location of the cells in which fertile workers are born. As this is important, allow me to describe one of my experiments in detail.
In June 1790, I observed that the bees in one of my thinnest hives had lost their queen for several days, and that they had no means of replacing her, since they had no worker's worms. I gave them a small piece of comb every cell of which contained a worm of this sort. As early as the following day, the bees lengthened several of those cells, to the shape of royal cells, around the worms which they intended for queens. They also bestowed some care upon the worms in the adjoining cells. Four days afterwards, all the royal cells were sealed, and with much gratification we counted 19 small cells which had also been perfected and were sealed with a flat capping. In these were the worms which had not received the royal treatment; but as they had grown in the vicinity of the worms destined for replacing the queen, it was very interesting for me to observe what would become of them. It was necessary to watch the moment of their last transformation. In order not to miss it, I removed those 19 cells and placed them into a grated box which was introduced among the bees; I also removed the royal cells; for it was very important that the queens that were to come should not disturb or complicate the results of my experiment. Another precaution was here required: it was to be feared that the bees, being deprived of the fruit of their labor, and the object of their hope, should become discouraged: therefore I supplied them with another piece of comb containing worker brood, expecting to remove this new brood, without mercy, when the time came. This plan succeeded marvelously; the bees, while bestowing their care upon these latter worms, forgot those which I had removed.
When the time arrived of the last transformation of my 19 cells, I caused the grated box in which they were enclosed to be examined each day, several times, and at length found six bees exactly similar to common bees. The worms in the remaining 13 cells perished without metamorphosis. I then removed from my hive the last piece of brood which had been placed there to prevent the discouragement of the workers; I put aside thequeens born from the royal cells, and after having painted the thorax of my six bees red, after having amputated their right antenna, I placed them all 6 in the hive, where they were well received.
You readily conceive my object, Sir, in this course of operations. I knew that there was no queen of either large or small size among my bees: if, then, in the continuation of the observation, I should find newly laid eggs in the combs, how very likely that they had been laid by one or the other of my 6 bees. But to attain absolute certainty, it was necessary to take them in the act of laying, and some ineffaceable mark was required to distinguish them.
This arrangement was fully successful. Indeed we soon perceived eggs in the hive; their number increased daily; the worms that hatched from them were all of the drones sort; but a long interval elapsed before we could catch the bees that laid them. At length, by dint of assiduity and perseverance, we perceived one introducing her posterior part into a cell; we opened the hive and caught this bee; we saw the egg that she had deposited; and in examining her we recognized readily, by the remnant of red upon her thorax and the privation of the right antenna, that she was one of the 6 reared under the vermicular state in the vicinity of the royal cells.
I no longer doubted the correctness of my conjecture; I do not know, however, Sir, whether this demonstration will appear as rigorous to you as it does to myself; but here is my reasoning: If it is certain that the fertile workers are always born in the vicinity of royal cells, it is no less certain that this vicinity is, in itself, an indifferent circumstance; for the size and shape of those cells can have no effect upon the worms in the surrounding cells; there must be something more to this: We know that the bees bring to the royal cells a particular food; we also know that the influence of this pap is very powerful upon the ovaries; that it alone can develop this germ; we must necessarily suppose that the worms placed in the adjacent cells have had a portion of this food. This is what they gain by vicinity to the royal cells; the numerous bees going to the latter pass over them, stop and drop some portion of the jelly destined for the royal worms. I believe that this reasoning is consistent with the principles of sound logic.
I so often repeated the experiment just described, and I have weighed all the circumstances with so much care, that I succeed in producing fertile workers in my hives, whenever I please. The method is simple. I remove the queen from a hive; the bees undertake to replace her at once, by enlarging several cells containing the brood of workers, and giving royal jelly to the worms in them; they also let fall small doses of this pap upon the worms located in the adjacent cells, and this food causes a certain development in their ovaries. Fertile workers are always produced in hives where the bees labor to replace their queen; but it is very rare to find them, because they are attacked and destroyed by the young queens reared in the royal cells. In order to save them, we must remove their enemies; we must take away the royal cells before the worms located in them have undergone their last transformation. Then the fertile workers, finding no rivals in the hive at the time of their birth, will be well received there, and if we take the trouble to mark them with some distinctive sign, we will see them, a few days afterwards, laying male eggs. Thus, the whole secret of the process consists in * [11] I have often seen queen-bees, at the moment of their birth, begin by attacking the royal cells and afterwards the common cells adjoining. When I first observed this fact, I had not yet observed fertile workers, and I could not understand the motive of the fury of the queens against these common cells; but now I conceive that they distinguish the sort of bees enclosed in them, and that they must have against them the same instinct of jeolousy, or the same feeling of aversion, as against the nymphs of queens proper.
though using the most favorable hives, I have never seen any combat between the queens and the workers; but often between the queens themselves.
I had one hive in particular containing at the same time 5 or 6 royal cells, each inclosing a nymph; the oldest of them first accomplished her transformation. Searcely ten minutes from the time of her leaving her cradle, she visited the other closed royal cells; she threw herself with fury upon the first: by dint of labor she succeeded in opening the tip, we saw her tearing the silk of the cocoon with her teeth; but probably her efforts did not succeed to her satisfaction, for she abandoned this end of the royal cell and began at the other extremity, in which she managed to make a larger aperture; when it was large enough she turned to introduce her belly into it; she made several motions until she succeeded in striking her rival with a deadly sting. Then she quitted the cell, and the bees which had been spectators of her labor, enlarged the breach that she had made and drew out the body of a dead queen scarcely out of its envelope of a nymph.
Meanwhile, the victorious young queen attacked another royal cell and made in it also a large opening, but she did attempt to introduce her extremity into it; this second cell did not contain an already developed queen, ready to emerge from her shell; it contained but a royal nymph: it is therefore apparent that, under this shape, the nymphs of queens inspire their rivals with less furore; but they do not escape death any better, for whenever a royal cell has been opened before its time, the bees extract its contents, under whatever form, worm, nymph or queen; so after the victorious queen left this second cell, the workers enlarged the opening which she had effected and extracted the enclosed nymph; lastly the young queen attacked a third cell, but did not succeed in opening it: she labored languidly appearing fatigued by her first efforts. At that time we needed queens for some particular experiment, so we resolved to carry away the other royal cells which had not yet been attacked, to shelter them from her anger.
We next wished to see what would happen if two queens emerged from their cells at the same time and in what manner one of them would perish. We made upon this subject an observation which I find in my journal in date of May 15, 1790.
Two queens emerged from their cells, on that day, almost at the same moment, in one of our thin hives. As soon as they perceived each other they rushed upon one another, with the appearance of great anger, and placed themselves in such position that the antennae of each were caught in the teeth of her rival; their heads, corslets and bellies were opposed to each other, they had but to bend the posterior extremity of their bodies to pierce one another with their stings and both die in the combat. But it appears that nature has not ordained that both combatants perish in the duel, but rather that when they find themselves in the position just described (that is belly to belly), they recede at once with the greatest precipitation. Thus, when the two rivals felt that their posterior parts were about to meet, they disengaged themselves and each ran away. You will observe, Sir, that I repeated this observation very often; it leaves no doubt, and it appears that, in such a case, one may penetrate the intention of nature.
There must be but one queen in a hive; therefore it is necessary, if by chance a second one is born or appears, that one of the two should be put to
## Sixth letter.
death. This could not be permitted to the workers because, in a republic composed of so many individuals, a simultaneous consent cannot be supposed to exist, it would frequently happen that a group of bees would bounce upon one of the females, while a second group would massacre the other, and the hive would be deprived of queen. Therefore it is necessary that the queens themselves be entrusted with the destruction of their rivals. But as, in these combats, nature demands only one victim, she has wisely provided that, at the moment when, from their position, both combatants might lose their lives, both should be so greatly alarmed, that they think only of flight, without using their stings.
I know that we run risk of erring, when minutely seeking the final causes of the most trifling facts; but in this, the aim and the means appeared so clear that I have ventured to advance this conjecture. You will judge better than I, Slr, whether it is well founded; let me return to my digression.
A few minutes after our two queens separated, their fear ceased, and they again seeked each other; soon they noticed one another and we saw them rush together: they again seized each other as before, and placed themselves in the same position: the result was the same; as soon as their bellies met, they disengaged themselves and fled. During all this time the workers were much agitated and the tumult appeared to increase when the adversaries separated; at two different times, we saw them stop the queens in their flight, seize their legs and hold them prisoners for more than a minute. Lastly, in a third attack, the more rabid or stronger of the queens darted upon her rival when the latter did not see her; she seized her with her teeth at the base of the wing; then rose above her and brought the extremity of her belly upon the last rings of her enemy, which she readily pierced with her sting; quitting hold of the wing which she held, she withdrew her sting; the vanquished queen fell, dragged herself tangiudly, quickly lost her strength and soon expired. This observation proves that virgin queens engage in single combats. We next wished to discover whether fertile queens or mothers entertained against each other the same animosity.
On the 22d of July, we selected, for this observation, a thin hive whose queen was very fertile, and as we were curious to learn whether she would destroy the royal cells, as virgin queens do, we placed 3 of these closed cells in the center of her comb. As soon as she perceived them, she rushed upon the group which they formed, pierced them at the base, and did not leave them until the nymphs in them were exposed. The workers which, hitherto, had been spectators of this destruction, now came to remove the nymphs, they avidly took the pap which remained at the bottom of the cells, and sucked also the fluid from the abdomen of the nymphs, and finally destroyed the cells from which they had been drawn.
We next introduced into this hive a very prolific queen, whose corslet we had painted to distinguish her from the reigning queen: a circle of bees quickly formed around this stranger, but their intention was not to welcome or caress her, for they insensibly so accumulated around her, and surrounded her so closely, that in a minute she lost her liberty and found herself a prisoner. It is a remarkable circumstance here, that, at the same time, other workers collected around the reigning queen and restrained all her motions: we saw the instant when she was about to be confined like the
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sting did not enter the flesh; the virgin queen disengaged herself and fled; she succeeded yet to escape from another attack, in which the fertile queen had the advantage of position. These two rivals appeared of equal strength, and it was difficult to foresee to which side victory would incline, until at last, by a successful hazard, the virgin mortally wounded the stranger, and she expired at the moment.
The stroke had penetrated so deeply that she was at first unable to withdraw her sting and was drawn down by the fall of her enemy. We saw her make many efforts to disengage her spear: she succeeded only by turning on the extremity of her belly as on a pivot. It is probable that the barbs of the sting were bent by this motion, and lying spirally around the stem, thus came out of the wound that they had made.
I believe, Sir, that these observations will no longer leave you any doubts upon the conjecture of our celebrated Reaumur. It is certain that if several queens are introduced into a hive, one alone will preserve the empire, the others will perish from her attacks, but the workers will at no time attempt to use their stings against the foreign queen. I conceive what has misled Messrs. Schirach and Riem; but to explain it, I must relate, at considerable length, a new trait in the policy of bees.
In the natural state of hives, several queens may be found, born in royal cells constructed by the bees; they will remain there until a swarm has formed, or until a combat between those queens decides to which the throne shall appertain; but excepting this case, there never can be supernumary queens, and if an observer wishes to introduce one, he can accomplish it only by force, that is, by opening the hive. In a word, in the natural state, a foreign queen can never insinuate herself there, for the following reasons.
Bees place and preserve a sufficient guard, night and day, at the entrance of their habitation: those vigilant sentinels examine all that present themselves, and as if distrusting their eyes, they touch, with their flexible antennae, every individual endeavoring to penetrate the hive, and the various substances put within their reach, which, to be said in passing, leaves but little doubt of the antennae being the organ of feeling. If a stranger queen appears, the guards seize her on the instant; to prevent her from entering, they lay hold of her legs or her wings with their teeth, and crowd so closely around her that she cannot move; gradually other bees come from the interior of the hive and join this cluster, making it still more compact; all their heads are turned towards the center where the queen is enclosed, and they eling with so much eagerness, that the ball formed by them may be taken up and carried about a few moments without their perceiving it; it is utterly impossible that a foreign queen, so closely enveloped and confined, be able to penetrate in the hive. If the bees retain her too long imprisoned, she perishes, her death probably caused by hunger, or deprivation of air: it is very certain at least that she is not stung: In only one single instance did we see the stings of the bees turned towards a queen thus imprisoned, and it was through our fault; moved by her situation, we endeavored to remove her from the center of the ball that surrounded her; the bees became enraged at once, darted their stings and a few strokes killed her. It is so certain that those stings were not intended for her that several workers were themselves killed; and it was certainly not their intention to kill oneanother. Had we not interfered, they would have been content with confining the queen, and would not have massaccred her.
To return to Mr. Reim, it was in a similar circumstance that he saw the workers eagerly pursuing a queen; he thought that they designed to pierce her with their stings, and concluded that the common bees were entrusted with the destruction of supernumerary queens. You have quoted his observation in the Contemplation de la Nature, part XI, chap. 27, note 7, but you see, Sir, from the details which I have just given, that he was mistaken; he did not know of the attention with which the bees watch what happens at the entrance of their hives, and he was entirely ignorant of the means which they take to prevent the entrance of supernumerary queens.
After having ascertained that in no case do the workers kill supernumerary queens with their stings, we were curious to learn how a strange queen would be received in a hive deprived of the reigning one; to elucidate this point, we made a multitude of experiments the details of which would too much lengthen this letter; I shall only relate the principal results.
When we remove the queen from a hive, the bees do not perceive it at first; they do not interrupt their labors, they care for their young; they do all the ordinary operations, with the same tranquillity; but after a few hours, they become agitated; all appears in tumult in their hive; a singular hum is heard; they leave their young, run over the surface of the combs with impetuosity and appear in delirium; they evidently discover that the queen is no longer among them. But how do they perceive it? How do the bees on the surface of one comb know that the queen is not on the next comb?
While speaking of another trait in the history of our bees, you have yourself, Sir, proposed these same questions; I am assuredly not yet in position to answer them, but I have collected a few facts which may facilitate the discovery of this mystery by the naturalists.
I do not doubt that this agitation arises from the knowledge they have of the loss of their queen; for as soon as she is returned to them, calm is restored instantly among them, and what is very singular is that they recognize her; this expression, Sir, must be accepted strictly. The substitution of another queen does not produce the same effect, if she is introduced in the hive within the first 12 hours after the removal of the reigning queen. In such case, the agitation continues, and the bees treat the stranger just as they do when the presence of their own queen leaves nothing for them to desire; they seize her, envelope her all around, and keep her a long time captive in an impenetrable cluster; usually she dies, either from hunger or deprivation af air.
When 18 hours elapse before a strange queen is substituted for the reigning queen removed, she is at first treated in the same manner, but the bees that surround her are sooner weary; the ball which they form around her becomes less compact; gradually they disperse and the queen is at last liberated; we see her walk with weak and languishing steps: sometimes she dies within a few minutes. We have seen queens escape in good health from an imprisonment of 17 hours, and end with reigning in the hives where they had been so ill-received at first.
But if we wait 24 or 30 hours, to substitute a strange queen for the
removed queen, she will be well received and will reign from the moment of her introduction in the hive.12
An absence of 24 or 30 hours is thus sufficient to cause the bees to forget their first queen. I abstain from conjectures.