Curiosities & wonders > New observations on the natural history of bees

202
QUEENS LAYING ONLY
on a queen though sterile; and after her f;
death treat her dead body as they had !
treated herself when alive, and long pre- !
fer it, though inanimate, to the most fertile j I
queens I had offered them. This sentiment, 8
which assumes the appearance of lively af- ;L
fection, is probably the effect of some agree- |
able sensation communicated to bees by their ,
queen, independent of fertility. Those lay- ^'
ing only the eggs of males undoubtedly ex- |!-
cite the same sensation in the workers.
I now recollect that the celebrated Swam- * *
merdam somewhere observes, that when a j;
queen is blind, sterile, or mutilated, she t:
ceases to lay, and the workers of her hive no (
longer continue their labours or make any 11
collections, as if aware that it is useless to
do so. But in advancing this as a fact, he '
cites no experiments that led him to the dis- 1
covery. Those made by myself have afforded 1
some very singular results.
I frequently amputated the four wings of
queens; yet not only did they continue lay- |
ing, but the same consideration of them was j
testified by the workers as before. There- •
fore, Swammerdam has no foundation for
asserting, that mutilated queens cease to
lay. Indeed, from his ignorance of fecuu- j