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onjecture from the bad reception of a third fertile queen preserving her antennae, which was introduced into the same hive. The bees seized, bit her, and confined her so closely, that she could hardly breath or move. Therefore, if they treat two females deprived of antennae in the same hive equally well, it is probably because they experience the same sensation from these two females, and want the means of longer distinguishing them from each other. From all this, I conclude, that the antennae are not a frivolous ornament to insects, but, according to all appearance, are the organs of touch or smell. Yet I cannot affirm which of these senses reside in them. It is not impossible that they are organised in such a manner as to fulfil both functions at once. As in the course of this experiment both mutilated females constantly endeavoured to escape from the hive, I wished to see what they would do if set at liberty, and whether the bees would accompany them in their flight. Therefore I removed the first and third queen from the hive, leaving the fertile mutilated one, and enlarged the entrance. The queen left her habitation the same day. At first she tried to fly, but, her belly being full of eggs, she fell down and never attempted it again. No workers accompanied her. Why, after rendering the queen so much attention while she lived among them, did they abandon her now on her departure? You know, Sir, that queens governing a weak swarm are sometimes discouraged, and fly away, carrying all their little colony along with them. In like manner sterile queens, and those whose dwelling is ravaged by weevils, depart; and are followed by all their bees. Why therefore in this experiment did the workers allow their mutilated queen to depart alone? All that I can hazard on this question is a conjecture. It appears that bees are induced to quit the hives from the increased heat which occasions the agitation of their queen, and the tumultuous motion which she communicates to them. A mutilated queen, notwithstanding her delirium, does not agitate the workers, because she seeks the uninhabited parts of the hive, and the glass panes of it: she hurries over clusters of bees, but the shock resembles that of any other body, and produces only a local and instantaneous motion. The agitation arising from it, is not communicated from one place to another, like that produced by a queen, which in the natural state wishes to abandon her hive a
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