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