Animal Intelligence: The International Scientific Series, Vol. XLIV.Romanes, George John
Science
Animal Intelligence: The International Scientific Series, Vol. XLIV.
Romanes, George John
Animal behavior; Animal intelligence
This account, which is quoted from Büchner, no doubt bears indications
of imaginative colouring; but if the observation as to the emission of
sounds is correct--and, as we shall see, this point is well confirmed by
other observers--it is most likely concerned in communicating by tone a
general idea of good or harm: probably in the former case it acts as a
sign, 'follow me;' and in the latter as a signal of danger. Büchner
further says that, according to Landois, if a saucer of honey is placed
before a hive, a few bees come out, which emit a cry of tut, tut, tut.
This note is rather shrill, and resembles the cry of an attacked bee.
Hereupon a large number of bees come out of the hive to collect the
offered honey.
Again,--
The best way to observe the power of communication
possessed by bees by means of their interchange of
touches, is to take away the queen from a hive. In a
little time, about an hour afterwards, the sad event
will be noticed by a small part of the community, and
these will stop working and run hastily about over the
comb. But this only concerns part of the hive, and the
side of a single comb. The excited bees, however, soon
leave the little circle in which they at first
revolved, and when they meet their comrades they cross
their antennæ and lightly touch the others with them.
The bees which have received some impression from this
touch now become uneasy in their turn, and convey
their uneasiness and distress in the same way to the
other parts of the dwelling. The disorder increases
rapidly, spreads to the other side of the comb, and at
last to all the people. Then arises the general
confusion before described.
Huber tested this communication by the antennæ by a
striking experiment. He divided a hive into two quite
separate parts by a partition wall, whereupon great
excitement arose in the division in which there was no
queen, and this was only quieted when some workers
began to build royal cells.
He then divided a hive in similar fashion by a
trellis, through which the bees could pass their
feelers. In this case all remained quiet, and no
attempt was made to build royal cells: the queen could
also be clearly seen crossing her antennæ with the
workers on the other side of the trellis.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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