. The bee and white ants, their manners and habits; with illustrations of animal instinct and intelligence. Bees; Instinct; Termites. THE BEE. a queen-mother regnant in case a stranger queen pregnant were introduced into the hive. A mark having been previously made upon the hack of such a queen, so that she might be afterwards identified, she was placed in the hive. Immediately on her appearance the workers collected in a crowd around her, and formed as usual a circle of which she was the centre, the heads of all the remaining crowd being directed towards her. This very soon became so dense th
. The bee and white ants, their manners and habits; with illustrations of animal instinct and intelligence. Bees; Instinct; Termites. THE BEE. a queen-mother regnant in case a stranger queen pregnant were introduced into the hive. A mark having been previously made upon the hack of such a queen, so that she might be afterwards identified, she was placed in the hive. Immediately on her appearance the workers collected in a crowd around her, and formed as usual a circle of which she was the centre, the heads of all the remaining crowd being directed towards her. This very soon became so dense that she became an absolute prisoner within it. While this was going on, a similar ring was formed by another group of workers round the queen regnant, so that she was likewise for the moment a prisoner. The two queens being thus in view of each other, if either evinced a disposition o approach and attack the other, the two rings were immediately opened, so as to give a free passage to the combatants; but the moment they showed a disposition to fly from each other, the longs were again closed, so as to retain them in the spot they occupied. At length the queen regnant resolved on the conflict, and the surrounding crowd, seeming to be conscious of her decision, immediately cleared a passage for her to the place where the stranger stood perched on the comb. She threw herself with fury on the latter, seized her by the root of the wing, and fixed her against the comb so as to deprive her of all power of movement or resistance, and then bending her abdomen inflicted a mortal stab with her sting, and put an end to the intruder. 126. A fruitful queen full of eggs was next placed upon one of the combs of a hive over which a virgin queen already reigned. She immediately began to drop her eggs, but not in the cells; nor did the workers, by a circle of whom she was closely surrounded, take charge of them; but, sincfe no trace of them could be discovered, it is probable that they were devour
Size: 1480px × 1688px
Photo credit: © The Book Worm / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, booksubjectbees, booksubjectinst
