A theatre of politicall flying-insects. Wherein especially the nature, the worth, the work, the wonder, and the manner of right-ordering of the bee, is discovered and described / Together with discourses, historical, and observations physical concerning them. And in a second part are annexed meditations, and observations theological and moral, in three centuries upon that subject. By Samuel Purchase.

Samuel Purchas

Date:: 1657

Credit: A theatre of politicall flying-insects. Wherein especially the nature, the worth, the work, the wonder, and the manner of right-ordering of the bee, is discovered and described / Together with discourses, historical, and observations physical concerning them. And in a second part are annexed meditations, and observations theological and moral, in three centuries upon that subject. By Samuel Purchase. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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Michael Te- Texit a fuppofeth that Bees copulate, and that the Bees are ii csinOno the Males, and the King* Females : And that the Kings doat T^CJBaftef ccrta!n lca^ons forth worms in multitudes as flies, their flyc- •op a • j,lotes,and (hac the Drones lit upon them ,.and.hatch them after the manner of Serpents* % Another faith, the matter in which they blow or breed, ij teft oH^cr*(omething.that they gather of the flowers or plants , and bring ’ home, and put into the holes, or cells of; the combes, which they mix finely wit ha little water, and then blow in it a thing kfsthen, or as little as a flye-blote. But this cannot bee,fo( wee finde nothing- in the cells wherein the feed is injected, but the feed it fdf. And again, thcBces feed is much bigger thana flye-bloto.. , And as to others, fo to Ajifinite, the generation of Bees Ub.*a %iiT ieeme^ very ambiguous and doubtful; for whereas among C ° hihes fome generate without copulation > he fbmetimes fup- pofed the fame of Bees, and argues thus : They muft either fetch their young elfe-where,as fome in his age opinionated which young muft be either bred of themfelvcs, or be pro¬ duced by fome other living creature,or they, muft generate them, or partly fetch them, and partly generate them: For fo ibroc fuppofed chat they fetched onely the Drones,.or die they muft generate them by copulation, or without copulation, Thus Bees by copulation among thenvfelvts to breed Secs, Drones ro breed Drones,and the Queens to breed Queens. Or all the left from one kindeeither;from the Queens,.the Drones, or the Bees j for fome, he conhfleth in Ins time, held that the Drones were males, and the B>cs females : Others ' held a contraryopinion, that the Bees were males,, and the Drones were females* ■>„ But againffall thefe tenets y.Aiiflotles reafons. as impefitbi* litres. If, faith he, they breed net, but fetch'thcir young.cliC' w here, of necefJity it muft bee , that there be Bees without any labour of Bees, namely in that place from whence they fetch • their feed; for why do the^come to perfection, being cauicd away, and not in their own proper places., ' -m And again he faich. It agrees not with rcafon that the Bet* arc females , and the Drones males, bccaufe nature never give* females weapons tadefend thcmfelvcs withall. !] ••S r ..

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