CHAP. 16.—THE REPRODUCTION OF BEES.
How bees generate their young has been a subject of great
and subtle research among the learned; seeing that no one has
ever witnessed
1 any sexual intercourse among these insects.
Many persons have expressed an opinion that they must be
produced from flowers, aptly and artistically arranged by
Nature; while others, again, suppose that they are produced
from an intercourse with the one which is to be found in every
swarm, and is usually called the king. This one, they say, is
the only male
2 in the hive, and is endowed with such extraordinary proportions, that it may not become exhausted
in the performance of its duties. Hence it is, that no offspring can be produced without it, all the other bees being
females,
3 and attending it in its capacity of a male, and not
as their leader. This opinion, however, which is otherwise
not improbable, is sufficiently refuted by the generation of the
drones. For on what grounds could it possibly happen that
the same intercourse should produce an offspring part of which
is perfect, and part in an imperfect state? The first surmise
which I have mentioned would appear, indeed, to be much
nearer the truth, were it not the case that here another difficulty meets us—the circumstance that sometimes, at the extremity of the combs, there are produced bees of a larger size,
which put the others to flight. This noxious bee bears the
name of
æstrus,4 and how is it possible that it should ever be
produced, if it is the fact that the bees themselves form their
progeny?
5
A fact, however, that is well ascertained, is, that bees sit,
6
like the domestic fowl, that which is hatched by them at
first having the appearance of a white maggot, and lying across
and adhering so tenaciously to the wax as to seem to be part of it.
The king, however, from the earliest moment, is of the colour
of honey, just as though he were made of the choicest flowers,
nor has he at any time the form of a grub, but from the very
first is provided with wings.
7 The rest of the bees, as soon
as they begin to assume a shape, have the name of
nymphæ,8
while the drones are called
sirenes, or
cephenes. If a person takes off the head of either kind before the wings are
formed, the rest of the body is considered a most choice morsel
by the parents. In process of time the parent bees instil
nutriment into them, and sit upon them, making on this occasion a loud humming noise, for the purpose, it is generally
supposed, of generating that warmth which is so requisite for
hatching the young. At length the membrane in which each
of them is enveloped, as though it lay in an egg, bursts asunder,
and the whole swarm comes to light.
This circumstance was witnessed at the suburban retreat of
a man of consular dignity near Rome, whose hives were made
of transparent lantern horn: the young were found to be developed in the space of forty-five days. In some combs, there is
found what is known by the name of " nail" wax;
9 it is bitter
and hard, and is only met with when the bees have failed to
hatch their young, either from disease or a natural sterility,
it is the abortion, in fact, of the bees. The young ones, the
moment they are hatched, commence working with their
parents, as though in a course of training, and the newly-born
king is accompanied by a multitude of his own age.
That the supply may not run short, each swarm rears several kings; but afterwards, when this progeny begins to arrive
at a mature age, with one accord
10 they put to death the inferior ones, lest they should create discord in the swarm.
11
There are two sorts of king bees; those of a reddish colour are
better than the black and mottled ones. The kings have
always a peculiar form of their own, and are double the size
of any of the rest; their wings are shorter
12 than those of the
others, their legs are straight, their walk more upright, and
they have a white spot on the forehead, which bears some resemblance to a diadem: they differ, too, very much from the
rest of the community, in their bright and shining appearance.