The entomologist's useful compendium; or an introduction to the knowledge of British insects ... / together with the genera of Linné, and the modern method of arranging the classes ... according to the views of Dr. Leach ... with instructions for collecting and fitting up objects for the microscope. Illustrated with twelve plates.

  • George Samouelle
Date:
1824
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The entomologist's useful compendium; or an introduction to the knowledge of British insects ... / together with the genera of Linné, and the modern method of arranging the classes ... according to the views of Dr. Leach ... with instructions for collecting and fitting up objects for the microscope. Illustrated with twelve plates. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    procal aversion; in traversing the hive they meet without showing the smallest indications of resentment. If a perfect stranger queen is introduced, either when one already exists in a hive or within a few hours after she is lost, that stranger is immediately surrounded, and so closely hemmed in by the bees that she sometimes dies. But here the mutilated stranger was quite well received; her arrival cre¬ ated no discontents in the hive, and the workers paid the same ho¬ mage to her as to their own. 16 Was it/’ asks M. Huber, “ because after losing the antennas these queens no longer retained any cha¬ racteristic which distinguished the one from the other ? I am the more inclined to adopt this conjecture, from the bad reception experienced by a third perfect queen introduced into the same hive: it is probably because they observe the same sensations from those two females, and want the means of distinguishing them from each other.” Bees ne¬ ver abandon their queen; her presence seems almost indispensable to their existence; and, as before observed,the queen never forsakes her hive. If she does so to found a new colony, the bees accompany her in her flight. Here, as both the mutilated queens constantly endeavoured to escape, the first and third were removed, and the entrance of the hive enlarged; the fertile mutilated one therefore left it, but none of the workers followed her; she was allowed to depart alone. The wise pro¬ visions of nature are amply illustrated by these facts. It is fortunate that a queen deprived of the antennae is thus impelled to leave the hive: while she remains, the bees incessantly attend her, and never think of procuring another. The secret which the workers possess, of converting a common worm into one, which will become a queen, must be exercised within the first three days of its existence; therefore if the queen remained, this limited term would elapse. Neither can her presence contribute to preserve the hive; for mutilation of the an¬ tennas deprives her of the power of discriminating the different kind of cells adapted to receive the various species of eggs which she lays. M. Huber considers the antennae as the organs of touch or smell, though he declines affirming which of these senses resides in them; and thinks it possible that they may be so organized as to fulfil both functions at once. Mr. Kirby, in speaking of the Eucera (or long-horned bee), says: “ A singular circumstance distinguishes their antennae, which, to the best of my knowledge, has never before been noticed, and which may possibly lead to the discovery of the use of these organs. Placed under a powerful magnifier, the last ten joints appear to be composed of innumerable hexagons, similar to those of which the eyes of these insects consist. If we reason from analogy, this remarkable cir¬ cumstance will lead us to conjecture, that the sense of which this part so essential to insects is the organ, may bear some relation to that conveyed by the eyes. As they are furnished with no instrument for
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