Produced by Louise Pryor, Steven Giacomelli and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images produced by Core Historical Literature in Agriculture (CHLA), Cornell University) {Transcriber's note The spelling in the original is sometimes idiosyncratic. It has not been changed, but a few obvious errors have been corrected. The corrections are listed at the end of this etext.} {Illustration: The figures that are referred to in the text} NEW OBSERVATIONS ON THE NATURAL HISTORY OF BEES, BY FRANCIS HUBER. TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL. * * * * * EDINBURGH: PRINTED FOR JOHN ANDERSON, AND SOLD BY LONGMAN, HURST, REES, AND ORME, LONDON. ALEX SMELLIE, Printer. 1806. _To SIR JOSEPH BANKS, BART._ _KNIGHT OF THE MOST HONOURABLE ORDER OF THE BATH, A PRIVY COUNCILLOR, PRESIDENT OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF LONDON, &c. &c._ _THIS TRANSLATION IS INSCRIBED._ CONTENTS. LETTER 1.--On the impregnation of the queen bee page 1 LETTER 2.--Sequel of observations on the impregnation of the queen bee 41 LETTER 3.--The same subject continued; observations on retarding the fecundation of queens 44 LETTER 4.--On M. Schirach's discovery 76 LETTER 5.--Experiments proving that there are sometimes common bees which lay fertile eggs 89 LETTER 6.--On the combats of queens; the massacre of the males; and what succeeds in a hive where a stranger queen is substituted for the natural one 108 LETTER 7.--Sequel of observations on the reception of a stranger queen; M. de Reaumur's observations on the subject 137 LETTER 8.--Is the queen oviparous? What influence has the size of the cells where the eggs are deposited on the bees produced? Researches on the mode of spinning the coccoons 145 LETTER 9.--On the formation of swarms 171 LETTER 10.--The same subject continued 201 LETTER 11.--The same subject continued 223 LETTER 12.--Additional observations on queens that lay only the eggs of drones, and on those deprived of the antennae 237 LETTER 13.--Economical considerations on bees 253 APPENDIX 275 TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE The facts contained in this volume are deeply interesting to the Naturalist. They not only elucidate the history of those industrious animals, whose nature is the peculiar subject of investigation, but they present some singular features in physiology which have hitherto been unknown.