They seek, with amorous haste, the nuptial room;
As erst the immortal pair, on Ida's height,
wreath'd round their noon of joy, ambrosial night,
The loyalty and attachment of bees to their queen is one of their most remarkable characteristics; they constantly supply her with food, and fawn upon and caress her, softly touching her with their antennæ, a favour which she occasionally returns. When she moves about the hive, all the bees through whom she successively passes pay her the same homage; those whom she leaves behind in her track close together, and resume their accustomed occupations.
The majestic deportment of the queen-bee and the homage paid to her is, with a little poetic license, thus described by Evans:—
But mark of royal port and awful mien.
Where moves with measured pace the insect Queen!
Twelve chosen guards, with slow and solemn gait.
Bend at her nod, and round her person wait.
This homage is, however, only paid to matron queens. Whilst they continue princesses, they receive no distinctive marks of respect. Dr. Dunbar, the noted Scotch apiarian, observed a very striking instance of this whilst experimenting on the combative qualities of the queen-bee. "So long," says he, "as the queen which survived the rencontre with her rival, remained a virgin, not the slightest degree of respect or attention was paid her—not a single bee gave her food; she was obliged, as often as she required it, to help herself; and in crossing the honey cells for that purpose, she had to scramble, often with difficulty, over the crowd, not an individual of which got out of her way, or seemed to care whether she fed or starved; but no sooner did she become a mother, than the scene was changed, and all testified towards her that most affectionate attention, which is uniformly exhibited to fertile queens."