BEE-spoke-data/bees-v0 huggingface dataset:
**"The bees on the outside of the cluster now changed their places, and by so doing displayed their bellies more distinctly. Owing to the projection of the wax scales, the rings seemed edged with white. In several places the curtain of bees, as I have called it, was completely rent, and some degree of common was noticeable in the hive.**" Convinced in his own mind that the combs would originate in the centre of the swarm, Huber directed his whole attention towards the roof of the glass. Just at this time a worker separated himself from one of the festoons of the cluster, and, with his head, drove away the bees at the beginning of the row in the middle of the arch, turning round and round until he had cleared a space an inch or more in diameter, in which he might move freely. Then he took up his position in the centre of the clearing.
"The worker, with the pincers at the joint of one of the third pair of his limbs, seized a scale of wax projecting from a ring, and brought it forward to his mouth with the claws of his freglegs, when it appeared in a vertical position. Then, with his claws, he turned the wax in every necessary direction ; the edge of the scale immediately broke up, and the fragments, accumulating in the hollow of the mandibles, issued forth like a very narrow ribbon, impregnated with a frothy liquid by the tongue. The tongue itself assumed the most varied shapes, and went through the most complicated operations, being sometimes flattened like a trovel, and at other times pointed like a pencil ; and, after imbuingthe whole substance of the ribbon, pushed it forward again into the mandibles, whence it was drawn out a second time, but in an opposite direction.
" At length the bee applied these particles of wax to the vault or roof of the hive, where they stuck through the saliva in them, communicating at the same time a whiteness and opacity previously wanting. I suppose, Charlie, that the object of this process was to give the wax that ductility and tenacity belonging to its perfect state. By the way, what is the meaning of those two hard words, _ductility_ and _tenacity?"_
" Oh, we say a substance is _ductile_ when it can be moulded into a particular shape ; and _tenacious_ when it keeps that state, unless some outward force be applied to it."
" Quite a learned definition! Well, the portions not yet applied the bee separated with his mandibles, and made what use of he pleased. Then he treated a second and a third scale in the same elaborate manner, and yet, the work was only planned out, as it were ; for this busy worker did nothing but accumulate the waxy particles together. The bee, having thus completed his particular task, retired among his companions.
Another, with wax under the rings, succeeded him; suspended himself to the same spot; withdrew new a scale by the pincers of the hind-legs; passed it through his mandibles; carried on his fellow-worker's work--only he took care to make his deposit in a line with the former, and to unite their ends. Now came forward a third worker, who reduced some of the scales to paste, and placed them near the materials accumulated by his companions, _but not in a straight line_. Another bee, apparently sensible of the defect, removed the misplaced wax, and carrying it to the former heap, deposited it there, exactly in the prescribed order and direction."
"Well, that's what I call ingenuity! These bees are far cleverer fellows than I had any idea of."
" Live and learn, Charlie. Keep your ears and eyes open, and be always on the watch to pick up knowledge. A grain per day, and you have a heap of three hundred and sixty-five grains per annum!
" The result of all the operations which I have described was the production of a rugged surface, hanging down from the arch, without any particular angle or definite shape, or any trace of cells.** I can only sketch it out to you as a wall or ridge, running in a straight line, and without the slightest bend or curve, two-thirds of an inch in length, about two lines high, and declining towards the extremities. Sometimes, however, the wall is from an inch to an inch and a half in length, the form being always the same ; but the wall is never of greater height.
" Such is the mode in which the bee-worker lays the foundation of her cell.
" We have now to ascertain, Charlie, in what way she builds it up ; how she raises on this foundation a satisfactory superstructure. To arrive at this information, I must again avail myself of the patient and ingenious experiments of Huber.
" He caused a box to be made, twelve inches square and nine deep, with a movable glass lid. Combs, full of brood, honey, and pollen were then collected from another hive, and being cut into pieces twelve inches long and four deep, they were arranged upright at the bottom of the box, at the same intervals as the insects themselves usually leave between them. The upper edge of each was covered by a slip of wooden faith. Huber did not think it probable that the bees would attempt to found new combs on the glass roof of the box, because its smoothness prevented the swarm from adhering to it ; so that, if disposed to build, they could do so over the slips resting on the combs, which left a vacant space five inches high above them. As was foreseen, the swarm with which this box was peopled established itself among the combs below. The activity of the nurse-bees was then observable. They scattered themselves about the hive, feeding the young grubs, clearing out their lodgments, and adapting it for the propriators. It would seem that they considered the combs, which were roughly cut to fit the bottom of the box, and in some parts damaged, in great need of reparation, for they immediately commenced the work. They beat down the old wax, kneaded it between their teeth, and thus formed materials fit for binding and consolidating the combs. Huber describes himself as astonished beyond expression to see such a multitude of workers employed simultaneously in labours to which it did not appear they should have been called, at their coincidence, their zeal, and their prudence.
"But it was still more wonderful, he says, that about half the population took no share in the proceedings at all, but remained motionless, while the others were so industriously occupied. This motionlessness, however, was not for nothing! They lay still, gorged with the honey put within their reach ; in this condition they remained for twenty-four hours, until the wax had formed under their rings, and was ready to be put in operation. To the great satisfaction of the experimentalist, a little foundation-wall soon began to rise on one of the slips prepared to receive it.
"At first this foundation was very small, but as the work required, it was gradually enlarged. Meantime, the workers excavated on one side a hollow, of about the width of a common cell, and on the opposite surface _two others_ of somewhat greater elongation. The middle of the single cell corresponded exactly to the partition separating the latter ; the arches of these excavations, projecting by the accumulation of wax, were converted into straight ridges ; whence the cells of the first row were composed of five sides, considering the slips as one side, and those of the second row of six sides.--Hand me that stick, Charlie. Now, on the ground here, I will draw three diagrams; to explain the enlargement of the foundation-wall,and the early operations in the erection of the cells.
Do you see, Charlie? "
"Yes, papa, and I understand."
"The structure of the interior of the cells, apparently, was derived from the position of their respective outlines. The bees possessed, most unquestionably, a remarkable delicacy of feeling, and hence they directed their teeth principally to the place where the wax was thiekest ; that is, to the parts where, on the opposite side, other workers had strengthened it, and, in their turn, commenced excavating.
"Thus it came about, that owing to the manner in which the excavations were opposed to each other, those of the second row, and all subsequent, partially applied to three cavities, were composed of three equal diamond-shaped lozenges. I may here remark, that each part of the labour of bees appears the natural result of what has preceded it. Therefore, as Huber distinctly asserts, chance has no share in these admirable combinations.
"But now, quitting for awhile M. Huber's ex periments, I will endeavour to describe briefly the general mode of formation of the cells.
" The combs of a bee-hive are parallel to each other, forming vertical strata of about an inch in thickness, with an interval of nearly half an inch between them. The cells, therefore, are nearly horizontal, but with a slight inclination or dip towards the centre of each comb. The workers first begin at the central cells of a bee-hive comb, and then, in succession, those next to it; on either side ; the combs being lengthened and enlarged, when necessary, according to the order in which they were made. In each comb there are two sets of cells--that is, one on either side ; and it has been put forward as an illustration of the perseverance and energy of bees, that a piece of comb, fourteen inches long by seven inches wide, and containing about four thousand cells, has been frequently constructed in four-and-wenty hours. Most of the comb consists of cells adapted for the lodgment of breeding workers ; the remainder is allotted to the drones. When the principal breeding season is over, the cells of some parts of the comb are often lengthened, to fit them for the reception of honey ; or combs of greater thickness, with longer cells, are constructed for this special purpose ; the mouth of the EEE AT WORK.
each store-cell, when completely filled with honey, being _sealed_ or covered with wax.
" The bee's cell is a hexagon, or six-sided figure. Now, for reasons which you would hardly under stand, this hexagon is a far more useful figure for a bee's cell than triangle, square, or circle. It affords the greatest strength, and necessitates the least waste of space. But the entire construction of the hive is a masterpiece of intelligence, and demands our wonder, our admiration, and, I had almost said, our awe.'
## Chapter 5 The Mason-Bee.
"Would you a miracle of labour see,
Come, watch the progress of the Mason-Boe!
Ambition surely fires his little breast,
As he achieves his well-shaped, clay-built nest."
THINK," said Mr. Walters, " I have now
gossiped long enough. Afternoon is
waning into evening, and we must
both stand in need of refreshment and
pose. But before we go in-doors, I would
like to say a few words about other bees than the
hive or common bee, with which we are all so
familiar, and whose ingenuity and fancy you have
now begun to appreciate ; and briefly trace the
operations of such industries workers as the
mason-bee, the carpenter-bee, the upholsterer-bee,
the humble-bee.
"A writer who is deserving of every confidence
justly remarks, that it would not be easy to find
a more simple and, at the same time, ingenious
Figure 5: Good[c]specimen of insect architecture than the nests of those species of _solitary_ bees--meek, _solitary_ bees, which do not live in vast communities like the common bee -- which are called Mason-Bees. It was Reaumur who, amazed by the close resemblances between the proceedings of insects and some of our human industries, first applied to bees, and wasps, and caterpillars, names indicative of the character of their work. And surely, since the mason-bee builds his nest with such materials as sand, earthy substances, wood, and chalk, he may be considered to have a right to his name."
" Oh yes ; but instead of the First Architect, let us call him the First Mason."
"Rennie tells us, in his valuable work on'Insect Arechitecture,' that on the north-east wall of Greenwich Park, at a height of four feet from the ground, he once discovered the nest of a mason-bee, formed in the layer of cement between two courses of bricks. Externally, you saw only an irregular cake of dry mud, which looked as if a handful of wet road-stuff had been removed
attracted attention, for it indicated the perforation of some insect. When examined, this hole was found to be the mouth of a cell about an inch deep, exactly of the form and size of a lady's thimble, finely polished, and of the colour of plaster-of-Paris, though stained in various places with yellow.
" This cell was empty ; but when the cake of mud was cleared away, another revealed itself, separated from the former by a partition about an inch thick. Here lay a winged bee--a bee which had just emerged from the larva or nymph state, and assumed her wings. Probably the one which had tenanted the adjacent cell had already found its little pinions, and flown away rejoicing in its novel freedom of existence.
" The way in which the mason-bee builds her nest is this : she seeks a supply of suitable material--let us say, a bank of clay by the margin of a stream--and proceeds to cut out a pellet, or tiny fragment ; which, after carefully kneading, and moistening with her saliva to render it more tenacious, she carries off to the spot where she has selected to build her domicile. She applies pellet upon pellet, occasionally introducing a small pebble, until she has constructed a kind of egg-shaped nest, within which she forms her cells.
"The very different behaviour of the bee at the clay-bank, and when building her nest, struck Mr. Rennie as not a little remarkable. When digging and preparing the clay, she showed no alarm at his approach; the work went on as regularly as if he had been at a distance; and though he was standing close to the hole, his presence did not scare away the bee on her return for fresh materials. But if he stood near the nest, or even in the road by which the bee flew to it, she turned back, or made a wide circuit immediately, as if to lure him from the neighbourhood of her little home. She would even turn back when her observer was at such a distance that it could scarcely be supposed she was jealous of him; but, mayhaps, she had detected some prowling ferocious insect, watching her flight with designs upon her provision for her future progeny.
"It is in instances such as these, says Mr. Rennie,--and this is the lesson, Charlie, I want you to learn,--instances which exhibit the adaptation of an _instinct_ to _circumstances_, that our reason finds the greatest difficulty in explaining the governing principle of the minds of the inferior animals. The mason-bee builds her nest by an invariable rule ; the model is in her mind, so to speak, as it has been in the mind of her race from their first creation : they have learned nothing by experience. But the mode in which they accomplish this task varies according to the situations in which they are placed. They appear to have a glimmering of reason, employed as a help to, and an instrument of, their instinct.
" But, as I have said before, who implants in them this instinct, or this glimmering of reason? There can be but one answer, Charlie : a divine, a supernatural, a creative Power--the Power which we love, worship, and glorify, as--God."
## Chapter VI The Carpenter-Bee.
"
*ROM the mason-bee I turn to the Carpenter-Bee (_Xylocopa lapensis_) a beautiful South African genus. The process by which she constructs her nest is as curious as it is ingenious ; and, moreover, it is as nicely calculated as if it were regulated by exact scientific principles.
"The bee, having selected a suitable piece of wood, such as a branch or the trunk of an old and decayed tree, or a post which has seen many days and has lost its original strength, she bores in it a circular hole about an inch and a half in length, which is large enough to permit her to pass. Having got as far as this, she suddenly turns off at an angle, and drives her tunnelparallel to the grain of the wood--that is, in the same direction that the grain runs--for some six or seven inches. In carrying out this work, she wastes none of the chips and fragments, but lays them aside in some secure place, sheltered from the wind.
"The tunnel is now complete. Upon what does our Xylocopa next employ herself? She is fatigued, and wants rest; but she seeks that rest, as all wise men should seek it, in change of employment. She goes in search of flower-farina and honey. With these she accumulates a tiny heap at the bottom of her nest, and upon the top deposits an egg.
"So far, so good. But the little insect knows her work is not done, and proceeds to build over the egg a vault or ceiling, which is intended to form the floor of another cell. For this purpose she resorts to her supply of chips, and fixes them in a ring above the heap of pollen, cementing,them together with a glutinous substance, supposed to be secreted by herself. Inside this ring she places another, and inside the second a third ; and so she proceeds, until she has built up a nearly flat ceiling of consecutive rings--the thickness of the whole being equal to about the thickness of a penny. The number of cells constructed by the same insect is very variable ; but the average seems to be seven or eight in each tunnel, and certainly the bee excavates more than one tunnel. As the tunnel, taken as a whole, exceeds a foot in length, and is wide enough to admit the passage of its wide - bodied builder, the amount of labour performed is certainly wonderful. And what are the bee's instruments!"
" Her feet and her jaws, I suppose." " No, her jaws alone! with these she drives twelve inches deep into the solid wood.
" But there are several other carpenter or wood-boring bees, of which I should like to speak to you. One of them, the Willow-Bee (_Megachile Willowabbiella_), or.Rossecutter-Bee, as it is sometimes called, is very frequently met with in our country. Her building operations are characteristic. She begins by boring a hole of proper TOOLS OF THE **size in** some old tree--generally a "carrenter-Bee**. **alloww** ; and when she has completed it, she goes off to a rose-bush, or a 'gold-dropping laburnum,' and here selects a particular leaf, out of which her sharp jaws quickly cut a semi-circular piece. As she supports herself, meanwhile, on the very piece of leaf she is cutting, she would fall to the ground along with it, did she not take the precaution of balancing herself on her wings for a few moments before the last cut is made. "With her prize firmly held between her jaws, she flies away to her nest, and binding the leaf into a kind of curve, presses it into the interior. Off she goes for another leaf, and, returning, thrusts it inside the former. This process she repeats until she has formed a small thimble-shaped cell, at the bottom of which she deposits an egg and some bee-bread. Then she constructs a second cell ; and then a third ; and so the work goes on, until she has formed a series of cells,
" Perhaps the work of a pith-boring bee, called _Hyleus dilatatus_, is more curious than anything I have yet described. This ingenious creature will make use of a hollow stem or stalk, like that of the hemlock, if she can get hold of a suitable one ; otherwise, she scorms delights, and lives laborious days in excavating a burrow of the size she needs. Other bees of this order may be found inside the dry twigs of the garden rose, and bramble, and plants of a similar character--even in the reeds and rushes which flourish on the margin of stream, pond, or river. 'If,' says a good authority,'if at the cut end of a branch a round hole be found in the pith, the observer may be sure that a nest of some kind is within. Generally, on carefully laying the branch open, there appears a whole series of cells, one above the other ; and in such a case, the cells which are furthest from the aperture always contain the larvae of the female insects, those nearest the entrance being the males.'.
" Let me quote from the same authority a still more interesting passage :--
" He says that the nests found in the bramble not seldom contain the larvae of the _Osmia leuco-melana_.""Two crack-jaw words, papa!"exclaimed Charlie ; "_Osmia leu-co-me-la-na!"_
"Well, if the name be hard of sound and long to spell, the insect designated by it is both pretty and little. It is scarcely more than a quarter of an inch in length, is black in colour, with a very glossy abdomen, and has a white, downy look about the legs. Five or six cells are made in each branch, and the perfect insect appears about the month of June.
"Other bees of this genus show much ingenuity in saving themselves labour. And yet they are not idle ; they can work as well as any of their kind, when they feel that there is a necessity for them to do so. But, apparently, they have discovered the truth that needless labour is as great a folly as waste of time. The smaller species are very fond of making their cells inside straws, and a thatched roof often contains thousands of nests, which are unsuspected by man, and only discovered by the tomtits and other birds, whose sharp eyes soon detect the hidden insect, and whose ready bills pull the straw out of the match and pick the larvae from their cells. Nail-holes in garden walls are often filled with cells ; and so are the auger-holes in old railsand posts, from which the wooden pins have fallen.
"As thatched roofs are rapidly disappearing, and our coutages and barns are being covered in with tiles or slates, I often wonder what will become of the numerous insects which have been accustomed to live and work in the overhanging leaves.
"Now, what I have had to say about the carpenter-bee, will fidy conclude with some judicious remarks by Mr. F. Smith :--
"One of these bees may be observed to alight on an upright post, or other wood suitable for its purposes. She commences the formation of her tunnel, not by excavating _downwards_, as she would be incommoded with the dust and rubbish she removes; no, she works _upwards_, and so avoids such an inconvenience. When she has proceeded to the length required, she proceeds in a horizontal direction to the outside of the post, and then her operations are continued _downwards_. She excavates a cell near the bottom of the tube, a second and a third, and so on, to the requirednumber. The larvae, when full fed, have their heads turned upwards. The bees which arrive at their perfect condition, or rather those which are first anxious to escape into day, are two or three in the upper cells--these are males ; the females are usually ten or twelve days later. This is the history of every wood-boring bee which I have bred, and,' says Mr. Smith, 'I have reared broods of nearly every species indigenous to this country.'
the approach of winter the whole community is dissolved ; the males and workers die, and the females
sink into torpor, remaining in this condition until the return of spring recalls them to their duties
as founders of new communities. Their nests--I am speaking of our common English humble-bee,
OTHER KINDS OF BEES AND THEIR WAYS.
"O beautiful bee-homestead! with many a varnen cell
Self-built--for hanging, so it seems--that aliry citadel!
An unbought blessing to man's life, which neither any heo,
Nor axa, nor crooked sickle is needed to bestow ;
A tiny vessel--and no more--wherein the busy bee
From its small body liquid sweets distillation lavishly!
Rejolce, ye blessed creatures! regaling while ye rove.
_ Wing'd workers of nactareous food! on all the flowers ye love!"
Professor Wilson.
"VERY curious species of solitary 'leaf-cutting' bees has been called the Poppy-Bee (_Osmia papaveris_), because she adorms her cell with the rich scarlet hangings of the poppy.
"The cell itself consists of a hole burrowed in a bank or heap of earth ; it is generally about three inches deep, gradually widening as it descends, until it assumes the form of a small Florence oil-flask. The bee renders the interior of this tunnel as smooth, polished, and uniform as possible, so that it may be fitted for the receptionof the tapestry with which it is intended to be decorated.