The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1877-06-09

| the mouth or nOstrlls, but have air vesseli
along their sides, called spiraeuid, and
connected with other vessels called Jron
CHA. They have the organs of sense, ant
make all the determinations which accort
with their physical powers and wants
They are oviparous, but scorpions anC
aphides are viyiparous. All the winged
insects exist as larvae, and undergo meta
morphoses previous to their perfect oil
propagating state. The male is always
smaller and more colored than the female
which alone have stings, but males have
horns.
Insects breathe through holes or pores
on each side of every segment of the ab
domcn, called spirdeulG.
The antenne are important organs Of
insects, equal to the hands of man. BY
them the bee works in constant darkness
There are 292 species of the bee or api:
genus, and III in England: among soli
tary bees the following deserves notice
The yose-cutter separates circular pieces
from leaves with precision, aud digging q
hole or 8 inches deep in the ground, the
bee rolls up the leaf aud depositing it iu
the hole, lodges and secures an egg in il
with food for Larvae when hatched, and
often several, but all separated, and very
perfect; and the bee then resides in the
upper part to protect her brood.
The uphoisterer makes hole enlarged
at the bottom, and lines the whole with
red poppy leaves, lays her eggs, supplies
them with food, &c, separately, then turns
down the lining to cover them, and closing
the hole leaves them to mature.
The tooodpiercer makes perpendicular
hole with vast labor in a decaying tree in
the sunshine, foot deep Then deposits
her eggs and food, and separates each by
a dwarf wall made of saw-dust and gluten,
each higher than the other, and the last
closing the hole; and she then makes
another hole horizontally, to enable them
to escape as they successfully mature.
The mason-Jee constructs a nest on the
side Of sunny wall-makes up sand pei
lets with gluten, and by persevering in
dustry fixes and finishes cell in which it
lays an egg and provisions. 1t then forms
Others beside it and covers in the whole,
the structure being as firm as the stone.
Wdsps aud humbLe-Jees make cavities
in banks. They line them with wax, and
make innumerable cells for their eggs in
perfect communities, working together and
forming lines in the removal of whatever
incommodes them
The honey.bee is well known and de-
servedly respected for the use which man
makes of their industry, and too often by
the wholesale murder of the ingenious
creatures whom he robs. But this most
cruel practice is now even from selfish
motives abated. The queen is the mother
of the whole hive, and her eggs become
males, females aud workers or neuters,
which last make the combs and cells, and
collect the honey. The queen produces
some thousands of workers, and then males,
which the workers kill at the end of the
summer. The workers attend the queen
with anxious respect. If she die, they
raise n new one by various arts from a
working worm. Two queens cannot live
in the same hive, and one is destroyed.
They have four wings and six legs. The
body is covered with hair and each hair is
like plant in miniature. The proboscis
is employed in collecting honey by licking
it from the flower and conveying it to the
stomach, whence it is disgorged into the
cells The wax is formed from the honey
The females and workers have q sting, but
the males or drones none. 1t is double
and provided with barbs, which the animal
depresses and draws out the sting unless
suddenly driven away. The sting emits
a poison into the wound.
la proportionate size the queen bee is
81, the male Z, and the workers 6. A
queen will lay 200 eggs daily for so or GO
days, and the eggs are hatched in three
days. The workers are FIVE days in the
worm state, and in 20 days they become
bees. The males are or Z days in the
worm state, and "a days in becoming per-
feet bees. A queen is days in worm
state, and in IL days is perfect. When
eggs are converted into queens the old
queen destroys them, or if they are two
young queens they fight till ore has killed
the other. One author asserts that a sin
gle queen has produced 100, 900 bees in a
season. Everything depends on the work
ers; they collect the honey, make wax and
build the combs, they supply the worms
with food, and protect the entrance of the
hive; separate business being performed
by classes,
There are about 5000 cells in comb of
a foot square, their first purpose is as nur-
series for the young, and they are then
cleaned and filed with honey. 5000 bees
weigh pound. 20 or 80 pounds of honey
are generally got from a hive, sometimes
50 or 100 lbs, and even more. Formerly
it was an inhuman practice to suffocate
and destroythe bees, thereby uniting nur-
der with robbery; but good managers have,
Tor many years past, preserved them and
fed them during the winter, by which
plan, five hives at H., each, have in ten
years yielded profit of 1850 lbs. To
destroy the swarm for the sake Of the
honey, is like cutting down the fruit trees
for the sake Of the fruit, independent of
the atrOcious cruelty attending the practice.
A swarm of bees contains from 10. 900
to 10000 in natural state, and from 30
to 40, 900 in hive.
All the experiments on bees prove, that
love for their queen and her progency is
the sole stimulus to their perseyerinc in-
dustry. Their joy, grief, and other pas.
sions are distinguished in the tone Of their
humming, which to them are articulate
sounds. 1t is the same with other insects
aud with all animals, with various extents
of vocabulary.
The hexagonal cells of bees have angles
of lO9 deg 20 min. and 40 deg. 80 min.
being the least matter and the largest size
in the space.
The wasp's nest is equally wonderful
with the beehive, and forms a regular
city, fortified against encroachments and
containing Is or 10000 cells for Young.
There are are 500 species Of the pari.
saical flies called ichneumon. They deposit
their eggs in other insects or animals and