The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1873-08-15


Agassiz ON Honey Bces.
In recent lecture Prof. Agassiz said
in reference to honey bees, the bee hiy,
consists, when in full activity, of on,
queen, several hundred drones and many
Thousand working bees. These constitute
community by which combined sys
tenn Of labor is carried ON transcending II
many respects the most complicated &C.
tions of man himself. Their structurd
shows no organ similar to those by which
the mental functions are manifested in the
higher animals and in man. They have
no brain proper, nor does their nervous
system correspond in any way to that oil
the yertebrates. In all vertebrates
the solid front mass OF the nervous system
which we call the brain is prolonged back
ward into long cord, known as the spinal
marrow, from which many nervous threads
arise and branch, spreading through the
whole organization. The brain, and the
spinal cord, in fact the whole central ner-
vous system, are enclosed in q cavity, the
skull and rachitic canal, separate from
those in which the organs Of digestion, res
piration, circulation and reproduction arc
contained the chest and abdominal cavity.
For the articulates, on the contrary, to
which all insects, or crustacea and worms
belong, the nervous system is scattered
along the length of the body in a
succession of swelings, connected
together by threads. The first of these
swellings is situated in the head, above the
alimentarv canal the rest are at regular
distances along the lower side Of the body.
Thus it appears that the battery from
which all volition starts, by which all the
acts Of life are performed or regulated,
through which all external impressions are
communicated and acted upon, are very
different in these two types Of the animal
kingdom. 1t is, therefore, hardly probable
that the life work done by these organs
should be the same.
INSTINCTS OF HONEY BEES.
Let us look at some of these acts by
which the quality VIC call instinct is mani
tested in community Of bees. When
such community becomes too populons
for given hive the bees swarm" as it
is called; that is, part of the oyercrowd-
ed population separates from the rest,
and goes off to establish new colony.
In such case the emigrants are chosen or
form their own bands with direct reference,
seemingly, to the future welfare Of the
new colony, preserving the numerical pro-
portions characteristic OF all prosperous
hives. The swarm consists of one queen,
and some thousands Of working bees or
undeyeloped females, some hundreds Of
males or drones. This is the normal
combination in the community, and
hives 50 organized may survive and
keep together for many years.
There are reports of hives century
old. This is, probably an exaggeration, for
bee hives twenty Years old are rare, and
they do not often survive more than seven,
eight or perhaps ten years. When Ispeak
of the life Of a bee hive | do not mean to
say that the individuals composing it live
together for that length of time, indeed, a
queen rarely lives beyond three or four
years one Of seven years is seldom seen,
while the males never survive the summer
in which they are born, and the working
bees die gradually and are replaced by new
ones. But the hive as a community holds
together for longer period, being constant
ly renewed by the process reproduction,
and comes at last like human settlement,
to consist Of a variety of individuals born
at different times. ss
f QUEEN BEES.
When swarm breaks off from an old
community to form. a new colony the
division is generally due to the appearance
of anew queens The queen bee, usually
quite contented with her lot, watching over
her progeny, active and patient in the care
Of her eggs, furious il rival arises in the
hive. She pounces upon her and they
sometimes fight to the death. So well is
this understood III the hive that the workers
take care to prevent such conflicts by hold
ing back the new queen just ready to be
Matched from her royal cell till the bees
have swarmed. AT such time the work.
ers will stand by the cell out of which
queen is to be born, ascertain how far her
transformation is completed, and should
there be disposition of the young
queen shortly to creep out they
increase the deposit Of wax upon the lid
which shuts the cell, thus preventing the
egress Of the royal prisoner. II she tries
to break through or attempts to gnaw her
way out, the workers crowd around the
. opening or accumulate such an amount of
wax upon it as to Illustrate all her efforts.
When the old queen has peacefully depart
ed the new one is set free. What makes
this fact more extraordinary is, that usually
the workers have never seen the birth of a
queen or a perfect female before their
hive has known but one queen. and yet
they anticipate and guard against all the
dangers likely to arise from second.
Can it be that these creatures do the right
thing OF the right time consciously by
means of any faculty similar to our .rea-
son?