The philosophy of natural history / by William Smellie.

  • William Smellie
Date:
1808
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The philosophy of natural history / by William Smellie. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    bours ceafef, till a new one is obtained, whom they treat with much refpeft, and renew their ufual operations J. They make cells of three different dimenfions, for holding work- ers, drones, and females ; and the queen-bee, in depofiting her eggs, diftinguifhes the three different kinds, and never puts a royal or a drone egg into the cells deftined for the re- ception of the working Bees. What is equally fingular, the number of thefe cells is proportioned to that of the different bees to be produced. One royal cell weighs as much as one hundred of the common kind §. When there are feveral females in a hive, the bees work little till they have deftroy- ed all the females but one. If more than a fingle female were allowed to remain in a hive, a greater number of eggs would be laid than the working bees are able to make cells for receiving them. The wood-piercing bee, which is one of the folitary fpe- cies, gnaws with amazing dexterity and perfeverance, a large hole in old timber. After laying her eggs in the cells, fhe tlepofits fuch a quantity of glutinous matter as nourifhes the worms produced from thefe eggs till the time of their trans- formation into flies. She then paftes up the mouth of the hole, and leaves her future offspring to the provifion fhe has made for them. • The bees of that fpecies which build cylindrical nefts with rofe-leaves, exhibit a very peculiar inftinct. They firft dig a cylindrical hole in the earth. When that operation is finifh- ed, they go in quell: of rofe-bufhes ; and, after felecting leaves proper for their purpofe, they cut oblong, curved, and even round pieces, exactly fuited to form the different parts of the cylinder||. The folitary wafp digs holes in the fand. In each hole fhe depofits an egg. But how is the worm, after it is hatched, to be nourifhed ? Here the inftinct of the mother merits f Ibid, pa^e 320. t Ibid, page 340. ^ Jbid.tom. 10. page 124. (] Reaumur, torn. 11. page 138.