of sand and silk, the inside is lined with silk only, of a fine pearl colour, extremely delicate and beautiful. There it passes through its chrysalis state, like most other insects, and at last comes forth a beautiful fly, of the libellula or dragon-fly species, with a long slender body, of a brown colour, a small head, large bright eyes, long slender legs, and four large transparent reticulated wings. The remarkable expansion of its body and wings, in comparison with its former size, which so suddenly takes place after leaving its pupa-case, has already been noticed.

This insect, in its perfect state, holds the same place in the economy of nature as it did before. It serves as a check on the various tribes of flies, as it formerly did on those of the caterpillar family, and the other little creepers of its own class. It is the strongest and the most courageous of all winged insects; nor is there one of this genus, how large so ever, that it will not attack and devour. The blue-fly, the bee, the wasp, and the hornet, make its constant prey, and even the butterfly, that spreads so large a wing, is often caught and treated without mercy. Its appetite seems to know no bounds; it spends the whole day in the pursuit, and has been seen to destroy three times its own size in the capture of a single hour. With its six claws it seizes its prey on the wing, which it tears easily to pieces with its powerful teeth. In all these habits this insect resembles its congeners of the same species, though various kinds of the dragon-fly have a very different origin, being, in their early stages, inhabitants of the water.

SEVENTH WEEK-TUESDAY.

THE QUEEN-BEE.

BEES have already been noticed both in the "Winter" and "Spring" volumes,-in the former to describe their hybernating, and in the latter their reproductive, instincts. But there is scarcely any thing in which these interesting little creatures do not strikingly exemplify the wisdom and the tender care of their Creator; and this paper shall be devoted to the consideration of some of their remaining instincts.

The mode of production of the queen-bee, its habits, and its relation to the rest of the hive, are circumstances which have not yet occupied our attention. In all these there is something exceedingly peculiar. Many gregarious animals, indeed, have leaders; and there are some insects, such as ants, which, like bees, have a queen, the mother of the whole progeny. There are none, however, so far as has yet been ascertained, which can at all be compared, in their properties and functions, with the little insect just mentioned.

The queen-bee, although she can bear no rival near her throne, yet carefully deposits the eggs which are to form new queens in the royal cells prepared for their reception. It is believed that there is no original difference between the egg of a queen and that of a worker,—that all working bees are females, but that they remain unproductive unless the larva be nursed in a particularly constructed cradle, and fed with a peculiar food. It is certain, at least, that a royal cell is different from all others, and that there is something peculiar in the food administered to the young queens in their infant state, as well as in their general mode of management; and it is not less certain, that the bees have it in their

power to

convert, at pleasure, the larva of a working-bee into a queen.

The following is the account given in the Edinburgh Encyclopedia of the manner in which the remarkable conversion I have mentioned is effected :-"Immediately on the loss or removal of a queen, the whole hive is a scene of tumult and disorder;* the bees seem to anticipate their own destruction, by the precaution they take to guard against it. Should there be neither eggs nor brood in the combs, they will infallibly perish; their instinctive faculties are lost; they have no object for which their labours are united; they cease to collect honey or prepare wax, and in a short time they disappear and die.

"But if there be brood in the combs, the industry of the bees continues unabated; for by the proceeding that they follow, they know that their loss will be repaired. Having selected a worm three days old or less, they sacrifice three of the contiguous cells, that the cell of the worm may be formed into one adapted to breed a queen. They next supply it with the necessary food; which is not the common farina, pollen, or bee-bread, on which the young of workers feed, but a peculiar kind of paste or jelly, of a pungent taste, which is reserved for the queen

*This is not quite correct. Mr Roget gives the following graphic account of what takes place in a hive on such occasions. "When the queen bee is forcibly taken away from the hive, the bees which are near her at the time, do not soon appear sensible of her absence, and the labours of the hive are carried on as usual. It is seldom before the lapse of an hour, that the working bees begin to manifest any symptoms of uneasiness, they are then observed to quit the larvæ which they had been feeding, and to run about in great agitation, to and fro, near the cell which the queen had occupied before her abduction. They then move over a wider circle, and on meeting with such of their companions as are not aware of the disaster, communicate the intelligence by crossing their antennæ, and striking lightly on them. The bees which receive the news become in their turn agitated, and conveying this feeling wherever they go, the alarm is soon participated by all the inhabitants of the hive. All rush forward with tumultuous precipitation, eagerly seeking their lost queen; but after continuing the search for some hours, and finding it to be fruitless, they appear resigned to their misfortune; the noisy tumult subsides, and the bees quietly resume their labours." -Bridgewater Treatise, vol. ii. pp. 287, 288.

alone. A cylindrical enclosure is raised around the worm, whereby its cell becomes a perfect tube, with its original rhomboidal bottom; for that part remains untouched. Were it injured, the fabric of the other three cells on the opposite side of the comb would be deranged, which would be a needless waste. The cell is still horizontal, like the rest of the combs, and thus remains during the first three days of the existence of the worm; but the bees, in prosecuting the enlargement, alter its direction, and form it to hang perpendicularly, as all those cells do which have been inhabited by queens. In performing this essential part of the operation, they do not scruple to destroy the worms surrounding the tube, and use the wax of their cells in constructing the new part, which they apply at right angles to the first, working downwards. The cell is then of a pyramidal figure, usually near the edges of the combs. It insensibly decreases from the base, and is closed at the top, when the included worm is ready to undergo its transformation to a nymph. When reaching maturity, the seal is broken, and a queen comes forth qualified to fulfil every indispensable function on which the preservation of so many thousand lives depends. Working bees have, therefore, the power of effecting the metamorphosis of one of their own species, to avert the effects of a loss, which would prove the utter ruin of the whole colony.”*

Nothing can easily be conceived more curious than the change which is thus effected. That by a certain mode of management which instinet points out, an insect should be so changed in its form, in its functions, and in its habits, is beyond measure surprising. When we think of the extent of the change, we shall find nothing in nature analogous to it. The same animal, which, had its growth and training proceeded in the usual way, would have been one individual among many thousands secreting wax, building cells, flying abroad on busy wing to collect honey or pollen, or remaining at home to * Edinburgh Encyclopedia article Bee, p. 407

dress the comb and nurse the young, is deprived of all these powers and instincts, and in their place acquires a new nature, which renders her an absolute monarch, whom the thousands that would otherwise have been her equals, revere and obey; which confines her, except on one or two peculiar and pressing occasions, to the precincts of her little kingdom; which makes her the mother of the succeeding generation and of new communities; which elevates her, in short, to be the presiding genius on whom the prosperity and the very existence of the whole commonwealth depend. All this is a mystery, into the physiology of which the naturalist shall in vain attempt to penetrate. But its final cause is clear and indisputable. The destinies of the whole have depended on the life of their queen. The Creator who willed this, foresaw and provided against the consequences which would ensue, were there no means of repairing the loss of this precious life. The contrivance, however mysterious, is admirable and efficient,-worthy of the Divine wisdom and benevolence, from which it proceeds.

Swarming is another subject of great interest, with regard to the causes of which much remains unexplained. It has been ascertained by Huber, that the first swarm is uniformly led out by the old queen, at a time when she has stocked the hive with numerous eggs, and especially when there are several young queens approaching maturity. All the subsequent swarms are led out by young queens. One chief phenomenon which precedes swarming, consists in the agitation of the queen. She is suddenly affected from some unknown cause, it may be from a consciousness which she has acquired by sounds emitted from the royal cells, or otherwise, of the approaching period of the production of rivals. She hastily traverses the combs, abandoning that slow and dignified progress which she usually maintains; her agitation is communicated to the bees; they crowd to the outlets of the hive; and the queen escaping first, they