Lardner gives the following account of two queens, from Huber. Huber placed a piece of comb having three royal cells in a hive in which the queen was laying eggs. The moment she saw them she attacked them, laid them open, and commanded her attendants to destroy them. These instantly tore out the royal nymphs, and devoured the food destined for their use. He then introduced a stranger queen, pregnant with eggs, marking her so as to be able to identify her.
"Immediately on her appearance the workers collected in a crowd around her, and formed as usual a circle of which she was the centre, the heads of all the remaining crowd being directed towards her. This very soon became so dense that she became an absolute prisoner within it.
"While this was going on, a similar ring was formed by another group of workers round the queen-regnant, so that she was likewise for the moment a prisoner.
"The two queens being thus in view of each other, if either evinced a disposition to approach and attack the other, the two rings were immediately opened, so as to give a free passage to the combatants; but the moment they showed a disposition to fly from each other, the rings were again closed, so as to retain them on the spot they occupied.
"At length the queen-regnant resolved on the conflict, and the surrounding crowd, seeming to be conscious of her decision, immediately cleared a passage for her to the place where the stranger stood perched on the comb. She threw herself with fury on the latter, seized her by the root of the wing, and fixed her against the comb so as to deprive her of all power of movement or resistance, and then bending her abdomen, inflicted a mortal stab with her sting, and put an end to the intruder.
"A fruitful queen full of eggs was next placed upon one of the combs of a hive over which a virgin queen already reigned. She immediately began to drop her eggs, but not in the cells; nor did the workers, by a circle of whom she was closely surrounded, take charge of them; but, since no trace of them could be discovered, it is probable that they were devoured.
"The group, by which this intruding queen was surrounded, having opened a way for her, she moved towards the edge of the comb, where she found herself close to the place occupied by the legitimate virgin queen. The moment they perceived each other, they rushed together with ungovernable fury. The virgin, mounting on the back of the intruder, stabbed her several times in the abdomen, but failed to penetrate the scaly covering of the segments. The combatants then, exhausted for the moment, disengaged themselves and retired. After an interval of some minutes they returned to the charge, and this time the intruder succeeded in mounting on the back of the virgin and giving her several stabs with her sting, which, however, failed to penetrate the flesh. The virgin queen, succeeding in disengaging herself, again retired. Another round succeeded, with the like results, the virgin still coming undermost, and, after disengaging herself, again retiring. The combat appeared for some time doubtful, the rival queens being so nearly equal in strength and power; when at last, by a lucky chance, the virgin sovereign inflicted a mortal wound upon the intruder, who fell dead on the spot.
"In this case, the sting of the virgin was buried so deep in the flesh of her opponent, that she found it impossible to withdraw it, and any attempt to do so by direct force would have been fatal to her. After many fruitless efforts, she at length adopted the following ingenious expedient with complete success. Instead of exerting her force on the sting by a direct pull, she turned herself round, giving herself a rotatory motion on the extremity of her abdomen where the sting had its insertion, as a pivot. In this way she gradually unscrewed the sting."
Another very interesting incident is related by Huber. It is described by Lardner:—
"The first work which the population undertakes, after being assured of the loss of its queen, is directed to obtain a successor to her. If there be not royal cells prepared, they set about their construction. While this work was in progress, and in twenty-four hours after their queen had been taken from them, Huber introduced into the hive a fruitful queen in the prime of life, being eleven months old. Not less than twelve royal cells had been already commenced and were in a forward state. The moment the strange queen was placed on one of the combs, one of the most curious scenes commenced which was probably ever witnessed in the animal world, and which has been described by Huber.