CHAPTER XXIV.
PASSIONS AND EMOTIONS OF BEES.
Affection for Queen and Brood—Recognition of Friends and Strangers—Fear—Anger—Covetousness—Benevolence—Remorse—Hope—Instinctive or Sense-action.
Certain difficulties surround the question of the emotions exhibited by the lower orders of animals; since it is easy for imagination, or, at least, the interpretative faculty of observers, to lend so special a colouring to actions, that the significance given to appearances will vary exceedingly, according to the subjectivity of the individual recording and explaining phenomena. There can, however, be little doubt that a feeling of affection exists between the workers and the queen, and is reciprocally manifested. The symptoms of distress at the loss of the hive-mother; the reverent attention paid to her by her special attendants; the joy at her restoration after temporary removal; resentment shown to a substitute while any hope of recovering their rightful monarch remains; the devoted following of her when a swarm issues, all tend unmistakably, we think, to show that genuine love is the bond between the undeveloped females and the one fully developed in the community. As to the drones, we can give credit to one only—the royal spouse—for any share in this emotion, and, indeed, we should be inclined to place the one exception in a different category.
As to affection for all belonging to one community, the facts are very conflicting. In the first place, drones appear to have the entrée of any stock. We can see that the obvious benefit of cross-breeding is thus more likely to be secured; but it is impossible to imagine this advantage to influence the bees. Again, the manifest hostility shown by one colony of workers to individuals from any other, is doubtless the result of the fear of stores being robbed; while drones are allowed free passage, because they do not transfer honey from one hive to another, and take no more than suffices for their personal needs. But, while there is no doubt of exclusiveness being shown by the workers towards other workers, we have little evidence of any actual affection existing among the members of the same community. It is true that the crushing of one bee enrages others who become aware of the circumstance, but the anger is probably the result of fear of further destruction, rather than grief at the loss of a friend. The death of individuals in the ordinary course of nature, does not seem to excite any emotion beyond the desire to get rid of the body, which is unceremoniously taken in the jaws, aided by the legs, of some enterprising survivor, carried to a distance from the hive, and then let fall. Bees never attempt to extricate co-workers from imprisonment in spider-webs, or from any other difficulty into which they have fallen.
We must, however, acknowledge that an intense affection for the developing brood is shown by the workers. It matters not whether the combs containing it belong to their own hives or to others. They will cluster upon the cells to maintain the required warmth, will supply the larvæ with food, and render every attention required by the young. When the offspring have come forth, some rather rough, but manifestly kindly meant offices, are performed, in clearing away the remains of the cocoon, combing out the imperfectly expanded wings, &c., but loving care ceases with the need for it; and, in adult life, the most we can predicate is a placid indifference to each other's presence, unless, indeed, anger should be aroused by some accident, when a more or less serious battle will take place.
That bees are susceptible of fear we have made evident in what has been said about the effect produced on them by smoke, by drumming, and by any sharp vibration of their combs.
The passion of anger is decidedly prominent in their nature. It is, indeed, apt to rise to an uncontrollable degree on very slight provocation, particularly, as we have mentioned, under certain conditions of weather, and especially of temperature. Moreover, the exhibition of it is frequently unrestrained by the fact that the use of the sting generally means the death of the aggressor, owing to the impossibility of withdrawing the barbed weapon, without tearing away part of the vital organs also.
Covetousness is also a powerful emotion with these insects. We have already spoken of the dangers of allowing bees a taste of sweets from other hives than their own, and of the almost ineradicable longing for the honey stored in other communities, if once pilfering has begun. And yet we can hardly ascribe sheer selfishness as the motive for robbing. We see, in fact, that the life of the worker is one long series of labours on behalf of a progeny not its own, and for a community in which its own existence is of very short duration. While, therefore, we allow that there is shown a desire to avoid honest toil, if dishonest courses will yield supplies more readily, still we must admit that the good, not of the individual but of the state, is the actually impelling principle of the plunderer. The amount of infatuation shown in the eagerness of bees for sweets is well described by Dr. Langstroth: "No one can understand the extent of it until he has seen a confectioner's shop assailed myriads of hungry bees. I have seen thousands by strained out from the syrup in which they had perished, thousands more alighting even upon the boiling sweets, the floor covered and the windows darkened with bees, some crawling, others flying, and others still so completely besmeared as to be able neither to crawl nor fly—not one in ten able to carry home its ill-gotten spoils, and yet the air filled with new hosts of thoughtless comers." They appear, indeed, unable to perceive the disasters of companions, and rush heedlessly on to destruction, the victims of which lie all around them.
From what has been previously said, it will be seen that we cannot with any show of reason assign to bees such complex emotions as benevolence or remorse. They are incapable, on the one hand, of appreciating the combination of circumstances involved in the distress or need of a friend, and the means of aid suitable for relief; and, on the other, having apparently no distinct knowledge of how the doing or omission of any action will affect other individuals, they cannot be sensible of regret or satisfaction in having done, or neglected to do, any specific deed.
We might, probably, with equal assurance deny to bees the possession of hope. It is true they prepare combs, store honey and pollen, attend upon the queen when laying, and carefully nurture the larvæ, as if they anticipated the rearing of a progeny; but it is difficult to conceive that these various duties are carried out with any definite notion of the future. We incline rather to the belief that a series of sensations promotes a corresponding series of actions, the combination, correspondence, and harmonising of which, for the general welfare, is wrought out by laws of which we know nothing, or, we would much rather say, by the operation of the infinite and Divine Will, without the direct control of which we cannot imagine this complex universe could hold on its way. Nor need we hesitate to assign its working to such comparatively insignificant objects as hives of bees, when we have the emphatic declaration of our Lord that not one sparrow lights upon the ground for its food without the knowledge of God; that He feeds the ravens, clothes the lilies with beauty, and numbers the very hairs of our heads.