Translated by H.Rackham (1952), with some minor alterations. Click on the L symbols to go to the Latin text of each chapter.
← Book 10
{1.} L [1] There remain some creatures of immeasurably minute structure - in fact some authorities have stated that they do not breathe and also that they are actually devoid of blood. These are of great limbs and number and of many kinds ; they have the habits of land-animals and of flying animals, some lacking wings, for instance centipedes, others winged, for instance bees, others of both kinds, for instance ants, some lacking both wings and feet ; and all are rightly termed insects, from the incisions which encircle them in some cases in the region of their necks and in others of their chests and stomach and separate off their limbs, these being only connected by a thin tube, with some however the crease of the incision not entirely encircling them, but only at the belly or higher up, with flexible vertebrae shaped like gutter-tiles - showing a craftsmanship on the part of Nature of that is more remarkable than in any other case : [2] inasmuch as in large bodies or at all events the larger ones the process of manufacture was facilitated by the yielding nature of the material, whereas in these minute nothings what method, what power, what labyrinthine perfection is displayed! Where did Nature find a place in a flea for all the senses ? - and other smaller creatures can be mentioned, - but at what point in its surface did she place sight ? where did she attach taste ? where did she insert smell ? and where did she implant that truculent and relatively very loud voice ? [3] with what subtlety she attached the wings, extended the legs that carry the feet, placed a ravenous hollow to serve as a stomach, kindled a greedy thirst for blood and especially human blood ! Then with what genius she provided a sharp weapon for piercing the skin, and as if working on a large object, although really it is invisibly minute, created it with alternating skill so as to be at once pointed for digging and tubed for sucking ! What teeth she attached to the wood-borer for boring through timber, with the accompanying sound as evidence, and made its chief nutriment to consist of wood ! [4] But we marvel at elephants' shoulders carrying castles, and bulls' necks and the fierce tossings of their heads, at the rapacity of tigers and the manes of lions, whereas really Nature is to be found in her entirety nowhere more than in her smallest creations. I consequently beg my readers not to let their contempt for many of these creatures lead them also to condemn to scorn what I relate about them, since in the contemplation of Nature nothing can possibly be deemed superfluous.
{2.} L [5] Many people have asserted that insects do not breathe, also arguing in support of this from the fact that they do not possess the internal organs of a respiratory system, and saying that consequently they live like plants and trees, whereas there is a very great difference between breathing and living ; it is for the same reason, they argue, that they do not contain blood either, as this is found in no species lacking a heart and a liver ; similarly, they say, things that have not got lungs do not breathe. This gives rise to a long list of questions. [6] For the same people actually say that these creatures have not got a voice, in spite of all the buzzing of bees and chirping of tree-crickets, and make other statements the value of which will be judged in their places. For when I have observed Nature she has always induced me to deem no statement about her incredible ; nor do I see why such creatures should be more able to live without breathing than to breathe without vital organs, which we have proved to occur even in the case of marine creatures in spite of the fact that their breath is barred by the density and depth of the water. [7] At all events that any creatures fly and yet have no capacity of breathing in spite of their living win the very breath of the air, and that they have consciousness of nutrition, generation and work, and even interest in the future, and that although they have no organs to carry the senses as in a vessel, they nevertheless possess hearing, smell, taste, and those outstanding gifts of nature, intelligence, brain, science, into the bargain - who would easily believe this ? [8] I admit that they have not got blood, as even land animals have not all got blood of the same. kind ; but just as in the sea the black fluid of the cuttlefish takes the place of blood, as also does the famous juice of the genus purple-fish that supplies a dye, similarly also whatever is the life-giving fluid possessed by insects, this will be their blood. Finally let each man form his own opinion, but our purpose is to point out the manifest properties of objects, not to search for doubtful causes.
{3.} L [9] So far as is perceptible, insects do not appear to possess sinews or bones or spines or cartilage or fat or flesh, and not even a fragile rind, such as some sea creatures have, nor anything that can properly be termed a skin, but a substance of a nature intermediate between all of these, as it were dried softer in the sinew but harder or rather more durable in all the other parts. And this is all that they possess, and nothing else in addition ; they have no internal organs except, in the case of quite a few, a twisted intestine. [10] Consequently when torn asunder they display a remarkable tenacity of life, and the separate parts go on throbbing, because whatever their vital principle is it certainly does not reside in particular members but in the body as a whole - least of all in the head, and this alone does not move unless it has been torn off -with the breast. No other kind of creature has a greater number of feet, and of this species the ones that have more feet live longer when torn asunder, as we see in the case of the multipede. But they possess eyes, and also of the other senses touch and taste, and some have smell as well, and a few hearing also.
{4.} L [11] But among all of these species the chief place belongs to the bees, and this rightly is the species chiefly admired, because they alone of this genus have been created for the sake of man. They collect honey, that sweetest and most refined and most health-giving of juices, they model combs and wax that serves a thousand practical purposes, they endure toil, they construct works, they have a government and individual enterprises and collective leaders, and, a thing that must occasion most surprise, [12] they have a system of manners that outstrips that of all the other animals, although they belong neither to the domesticated nor to the wild class. Nature is so mighty a power that out of what is almost a tiny ghost of an animal she has created something incomparable ! What sinews or muscles can we match with such efficacy and industry as that of the bees.? What men, I protest, can we rank in rationality with these insects, which unquestionably excel mankind in this, that they recognise only the common interest ? Not raising the question of breath, suppose we agree as to their possessing even blood ; yet what a tiny quantity can there be in these tiny creatures ! After these points let us estimate their intelligence.
{5.} L [13] In winter insects go into retirement - for whence could they obtain strength to endure frost and snow and the blasts of the north wind ? - all species alike, no doubt, but not for so long a period the ones that hide in our house-walls and are warmed earlier than others are. In regard to bees, either seasons or else climates have changed, or previous writers have been mistaken. They go into retirement after the setting of the Pleiades and remain in hiding till after their rise - so not till the beginning of spring, as writers have said, - and nobody in Italy thinks about hives before the bean is in flower. [14] They go out to their works and to their labours, and not a single day is lost in idleness when the weather grants permission. First they construct combs and mould wax, that is, construct their homes and cells, then produce offspring, and afterwards honey, wax from flowers, bee-glue from the droppings of the gum-producing trees - the sap, glue and resin of the willow, elm and reed. [15] They first smear the whole interior of the hive itself with these as with a kind of stucco, and then with other bitterer juices as a protection against the greed of other small creatures, as they know that they are going to make something that may possibly be coveted ; with the same materials they also build wider gateways round the structure.
{6.} L [16] The first foundations are termed by experts commosis, the second pissoceros, the third propolis, between the outer cover and the wax, substances of great use for medicaments. Commosis is the first crust, of a bitter flavour. Pissoceros comes above it, as in laying on tar, as being more fluid than wax. Propolis is obtained from the milder gum of vines and poplars, and is made of a denser substance by the addition of flowers, and though not as yet wax it serves to strengthen the combs ; with it all approaches of cold or damage are blocked, and besides it has itself a heavy scent, being in fact used by most people as a substitute for galbanum.
{7.} L [17] Besides these things a collection is made of erithace, which some people call sandarach and others bee-bread ; this will serve as food for the bees while they are at work, and it is often found stored up in the hollows of the combs, being itself also of a bitter flavour, but it is produced out of spring dew of trees like the gums. It is obtained in fig trees - blacker in colour when an east wind is blowing and of better quality and a reddish colour when north winds blow - and in the largest quantity in Greek nut-trees. Menecrates says that it is a flower, but he is the only authority that makes that statement.
{8.} L [18] They make their wax from the flowers of all trees and plants except the sorrel and the echinopod ; these are kinds of herbs. It is a mistake to say that esparto grass is also an exception, because a great deal of the honey obtained in the broom-thickets in Spain tastes of that plant. I also think that olives are wrongly excepted, as it is certain that the largest number of swarms are produced where olive-trees are growing. No harm is done to any kind of fruit. They do not settle even on dead flowers, let alone dead bodies. [19] They work within a range of sixty paces, and subsequently when the flowers in the vicinity have been used up they send scouts to further pastures. If overtaken by nightfall on an expedition they camp out, reclining on their backs to protect their wings from the dew.
{9.} L Nobody must be surprised that love for bees inspired Aristomachus of Soli to devote himself to nothing else for 58 years, and Philiscus of Thasos to keep bees in desert places, winning the name of the Wild Man ; both of these have written about them.
{10.} L [20] Their work is marvellously mapped out on the following plan : a guard is posted at the gates, after the manner of a camp ; they sleep till dawn, until one bee wakes them up with a double or triple buzz as a sort of bugle-call ; then they all fly forth in a body, if the day is going to be fine - for they forecast winds and rain, in case of which they keep indoors ; and consequently men consider this inaction on the part of the bees as one of the prognostics of the weather. When the band has gone out to its tasks, some bring home flowers in their feet and others water in their mouth and drops clinging to the down all over their body. [21] While the youthful among them go out to their tasks and collect the things mentioned above, the older ones work indoors. Those collecting flowers with their front feet load their thighs, which are covered with scales so as to serve this purpose, and with their beak load their front feet, and when fully loaded return bulging with their burden. [22] Each is received by three or four others who relieve him of his load : for indoors also the duties are divided - some build, others polish, others bring up material, others prepare food from what is brought to them ; for they do not feed separately, so that there shall be no inequality of work or food or time. In building they begin with the vaulting of the hive, and they bring down as it were a web from the top of a loom, with two balks round each square of work, so that some may come in and others go out. [23] The combs hang firmly attached to the upper part and also a little to the sides at the same time, but they do not reach to the floor of the hive ; sometimes they are oblong and sometimes round, according as the shape of the hive requires, and occasionally also of both kinds, when two swarms whose members are friendly have different customs. They prop up combs that are inclined to fall, the party-walls between the pillars being arched from the ground level so as to supply access for the purpose of repairing. [24] The first three rows or so are arranged empty, so that there may not be any obvious temptation to a thief ; the last ones are filled fullest with honey ; consequently the combs are taken out from the back of the hive. Carrier bees wait for favourable breezes. If a storm arises, they steady themselves with the weight of a little pebble held in their feet ; some authorities say that it is placed on their shoulders. However in a wind against them they fly close to the ground, carefully avoiding the brambles. [25] They keep a wonderful watch on the work in hand ; they mark the idleness of any who are slack and chastise them, and later even punish them with death. They are wonderfully clean : they remove everything out of the way and no refuse is left lying among their work ; indeed the droppings of those working inside are heaped in one place so that they may not have to retire too far, and they carry them out on stormy days and when work is suspended. [26] When evening approaches, the buzzing inside the hive grows less and less, till one bee flies round as though giving the order to take repose with the same loud buzz with which she woke them, and this in the manner of a military camp ; thereupon they all suddenly become quiet.
They build homes for the commonalty first, and for the kings afterwards. If a specially large production of honey is expected, quarters are added for the drones as well ; these are the smallest of the cells, but those for the worker-bees themselves are larger. {11.} L [27] The drones have no stings, being so to say imperfect bees and the newest made, the incomplete product of those that are exhausted and now discharged from service, a late brood, and as it were the servants of the true bees, who consequently order them about, and drive them out first to the works, punishing laggards without mercy. And the drones are of service to the bees not only in work but also when breeding, as their crowd contributes much to their warmth : [28] it is certain that the larger number of drones there has been, the larger production of swarms also occurs. When the honey has begun to ripen, the bees drive the drones away, and falling on them many to one kill them. Moreover this class of bee is only seen in spring. If a drone is stripped of its wings and afterwards thrown back into the hive it itself strips the wings off the others. {12.} L [29] They build large and splendid separate palaces for those who are to be their rulers, in the bottom of the hive ; these project with a protuberance, and if this be squeezed out, no offspring is born. All the cells are hexagonal, each side being made by one of the bee's six feet. None of these tasks are done at a fixed time, but they snatch their duties on fine days. They fill their cells with honey on one or at most two days.
[30] Honey comes out of the air, and is chiefly formed at the rising of the stars, and especially when the dog-star itself shines forth, and not at all before the rising of the Pleiades, in the periods just before dawn. Consequently at that season at early dawn the leaves of trees are found bedewed with honey, and any persons who have been out under the morning sky feel their clothes smeared with damp and their hair stuck together, whether this is the perspiration of the sky or a sort of saliva of the stars or the moisture of the air purging itself. And would it were pure and liquid and homogeneous, as it was when it first flowed down ! [31] But as it is, falling from so great a height and acquiring a great deal of dirt as it comes and becoming stained with vapour of the earth that it encounters, and moreover having been sipped from foliage and pastures and having been collected into the stomachs of bees - for they throw it up out of their mouths, and in addition being tainted by the juice of flowers, and soaked in the corruptions of the belly, and so often transformed, nevertheless it brings with it the great pleasure of its heavenly nature.
{13.} L [32] It is always of the best quality where it is stored in the calyces of the best flowers. This takes place at Hymettus and Hybla in the region of Attica and of Sicily, which are sunny localities and also on the island of Calydna. But at the start it is honey diluted as it were with water, and in the first days it ferments like must and purifies itself, while on the twentieth day it thickens and then is covered with a thin skin which forms from the foam of the actual boiling. The best kind and that least stained with the foliage is sucked from the leaves of the oak and lime and of reeds.
{14.} L [33] Indeed it is constituted on a supreme principle of excellence, as we have said, in a variety of ways. In some places honeycombs distinguished for their wax are formed, as in Sicily and amongst the Paeligni, in other places for quantity of honey, as in Crete, Cyprus, Africa, in others for size, as in the northern countries, a comb having before now been seen in Germany that was eight feet long, and black in its hollow part. [34] Yet in any region there are three kinds of honey. There is spring honey with the comb made from flowers, which is consequently called flower-honey. Some people say this ought not to be touched, so that a progeny made strong by plentiful nourishment may be produced; but others leave less of this honey than of any other kind for the bees, on the ground that a great profusion follows at the rising of the great stars, and also at the solstice, when thyme and grape-vines begin to flower, the outstanding material for the cells. [35] It is however necessary to practice economy in taking away the combs, as lack of food causes the bees to despair and die or fly away, and on the other hand a large supply brings sloth, and then the bees feed on the honey and not on bee-bread ; consequently the more careful beekeepers leave a fifteenth part of this vintage to the bees. The day fixed for beginning by a sort of law of nature, if only men would know or keep it, is the thirtieth after the leading out of the swarm ; and this vintage usually falls within the month of May.
[36] The second kind of honey is summer honey, the Greek name for which consequently is 'ripe honey,' because it is produced in the most favourable season, when the dog-star is shining in its full splendour, about thirty days after midsummer. In respect of this, immense subtlety on the part of nature has been displayed to mortals, did not man's dishonesty spoil everything with its destructiveness. [37] For after the rising of each star, but particularly the principal stars, or of a rainbow, if rain does not follow but the dew is warmed by the rays of the sun, not honey but drugs are produced, heavenly gifts for the eyes, for ulcers and for the internal organs. And if this substance is kept when the dog-star is rising, and if, as often happens, the rise of Venus or Jupiter or Mercury falls on the same day, its sweetness and potency for recalling mortals' ills from death is equal to that of the nectar of the gods.
{15.} L [38] Honey is obtained more copiously at full moon, and of thicker substance in fine weather. In all honey the portion that has flowed by itself like must and olive oil - it is called honey-vinegar - is the most commendable. All summer honey is reddish, as it has been made in a comparatively dry period. White honey is not made where there is thyme, but honey made from thyme is thought most suitable for the eyes and for ulcers - it is of a gold colour and has an extremely agreeable taste. [39] The fat honey from violets and the thick kind from rosemary can be seen to condense, but honey that thickens is least praised. Honey from thyme does not condense, and when touched sends out very thin threads, which is the first proof of goodness ; it is considered a mark of poor quality for the drops to break off at once and fall back. The next test is for it to have a fragrant scent and a sweet taste leaving a tang, and to be sticky and transparent. [40] Cassius Dionysius holds that a tenth part of the summer honey-crop should be left to the bees, if the hives were full, and that if they were not, a proportionate amount should be left, or if they were empty, they should not be touched at all. The population of Attica have given the first ripening of the wild fig as the signal for this vintage, but others say Vulcan's holy day {23 August}.
[41] A third, very little valued, kind of honey is wild honey, called heath-honey. It is collected after the first autumn rains, when only the heath is in flower in the woods, and consequently it resembles sandy honey. It is produced mostly by the rise of Arcturus after September 12. Some people advance the summer honey-making to the rise of Arcturus, since that leaves fourteen days to the autumnal equinox, and in the forty-eight days from the equinox to the setting of the Pleiades heath is most plentiful. [42] The Athenian name for it is tetralice, and the Euboean sisyrus, and they believe it to be very acceptable to bees. perhaps because at that season there is no other supply for them. Consequently this honey-gathering is roughly in the period between the end of vintage and the setting of the Pleiades on November 13. Reason advises leaving two-thirds of the honey then procured for the bees, and always the parts of the combs that contain bee-bread. [43] In the sixty days from midwinter to the rising of Arcturus they live on sleep, without any food ; in the warmer period from the rising of Arcturus to the spring equinox they now keep awake, but still keep inside the hive and have recourse to the food kept for this time. But in Italy they do the same after the rising of the Pleiades, sleeping till then. [44] Some people in taking out the honey weigh the hives, so separating the amount to be left behind. There is indeed a bond of equity even in the case of bees, and it is said that if the partnership is defrauded the hives perish. Consequently it is one of the first rules that people must wash themselves clean before they take the honey ; also bees hate scurf, and women's menstruation. [45] When honey is being removed it is very useful for the bees to be driven away by smoke, so that they may not get angry or greedily devour it themselves. Also denser smoke is employed to arouse their sloth to their tasks, for if they have not gone on incubating, the combs they make are discoloured. On the other hand excessive smoke kills them, as honey very quickly undergoes deterioration if turned sour by the least touch of moisture ; and for this reason among the kinds of honey there is a special sort called by the Greek word meaning 'smokeless.'
{16.} L [46] There has been a great deal of minute enquiry among the learned as to the manner in which bees reproduce their species ; for sexual intercourse among them has never been observed. A majority of authorities have held the view that the offspring are formed in the mouth, by blending together blossoms of the reed and the olive ; some think it is by copulation with a single male which in each swarm is called the king ; and that this is the only male, and is of exceptional size, so as not to grow weary ; and that consequently offspring is not produced without him, and the rest of the bees accompany him as women accompany a husband, not as their leader. This view, though probable on other grounds, is refuted by the production of drones ; for what reason can there be why the same act of union should engender some perfect offspring and others imperfect ? [47] The former opinion would be nearer to the truth, were it not that again another difficulty meets us : it is a fact that sometimes larger bees are born in the extremities of the combs which drive away all the rest. This mischievous creature is called a gadfly - being born in what possible manner if the female bees themselves shape it ? [48] One certain fact is that they sit on their eggs in the way that hens do. The offspring hatched at first looks like a white maggot, lying crosswise and sticking so closely to the wax that it seems to be part of it. The king is from the start of the colour of honey, as if made from a special blossom chosen out of the whole supply, and is not a maggot but has wings from the start. The remaining throng when they begin to take shape are called pupae, while the sham ones are called sirens or drones. [49] If anybody takes the heads off specimens of either kind before they have wings, they serve as very acceptable food for their mothers. As time goes on they give them drops of food and sit on them, buzzing more than at any other time, with the object, it is thought, of producing the warmth needed for hatching out the grubs, until they break the membranes that enclose each of them like eggshells and the whole band emerges. This was observed at Rome on the suburban estate of a certain ex-consul, who had hives made of the transparent horn of a lantern. [50] The brood grows up in about six weeks. In some hives what is called a wart is formed, a hard lump of bitter wax, when the bees have not produced offspring out of the comb, owing to disease or sloth or natural infertility ; this is the bees' form of abortion. But as soon as they are hatched out they get to work with their mothers under some sort of tuition, and the youthful king is escorted by a retinue of his peers. [51] Several kings are begun to be produced, so that there may not be a lack of them ; but afterwards, when the offspring sprung from these has begun to be grown up, by a unanimous vote they kill the worst of them so that they may not divide up the forces. They are of two kinds, the better sort red and the inferior kind black or speckled. All of them are always exceptionally well-formed and twice as large as the others ; their wings are shorter, their legs straight, their bearing more lofty, and they have a spot on their brow that shines white in a kind of fillet ; they also differ from the common herd a great deal by their brilliant colour.
{17.} L [52] Now let somebody raise the questions whether Hercules was one person and how many Father Libers there were. and all the other puzzles, buried beneath the litter of antiquity ! Here on a trifling matter connected with our own country-houses, a thing constantly in evidence, there is no agreement among the authorities - the question whether the king bee alone has no sting and is armed only with the grandeur of his office, or whether nature has indeed bestowed one upon him but has merely denied him the use of it. It is a well established fact that the ruler does not use a sting. [53] The commons surround him with a marvellous obedience. When he goes in procession, the whole swarm accompanies him and is massed around him to encircle and protect him, not allowing him to be seen. During the rest of the time, while the people are engaged in labour, he himself goes the circuit of the works inside, with the appearance of urging them on, while he alone is free from duty. He is surrounded by certain retainers and lictors as the constant guardians of his authority. [54] He only issues abroad when the swarm is about to migrate ; intelligence of this is given long before, as a buzzing noise has been going on for some days in the hive, a sign of their preparation while they are selecting a suitable day. If anybody should cut off one of his wings, the swarm would not run away. When they have started, each one wants to be next him and delights to be seen on duty; when he is tired they support him with their shoulders, and carry him entirely if he is more completely exhausted. Any bee that falls out from weariness or happens to stray from the main body, follows on by scent. Wherever the king alights is the camping place of the whole body.
{18.} L [55] Moreover they supply private and public portents when a cluster of them hangs suspended in houses and temples, portents that have often been expiated by great events. They alighted on the mouth of Plato even when he was still an infant, portending the charm of that matchless eloquence ; and they alighted in the camp of General Drusus on the occasion of the very successful battle of Arbalo - as there are certainly exceptions to the interpretation of the augurs, who invariably think this a direful portent. [56] The capture of the leader a king holds up the whole body, and when they have lost him they separate and migrate to other lords ; in any case they are unable to be without a king. But when the kings have become too numerous they reluctantly destroy them, and by preference they destroy their homes while they are being born. If a supply of honey is despaired of, then they even drive away the drones. [57] Nevertheless I see that there is a doubt about these also, and that some persons think them to form a breed of their own, like the robber-bees, the largest in size among the drones but black and with a broad belly, which have this designation because they steal and devour the honey. It is certain that the drones are killed by the bees ; at all events they do not have a king in the same way as the other bees do ; but whether they are born without a sting is a doubtful point.
[58] Bees breed better in a damp spring, but produce more honey in a dry one. If there is a dearth of food for some hives, they make a raid on their neighbours for the purpose of plunder ; but the bees attacked form in line of battle to resist, and if the bee-keeper is present whichever side thinks that he favours it does not attack him. They also often fight battles for other reasons, and form in two opposing lines under two commanders, the chief source of quarrel arising while they are collecting flowers, and each party calling out their friends; but the combat can be entirely scattered by some dust being thrown on it or by smoke, while a reconciliation can be effected by some milk or water sweetened with honey.
{19.} L [59] There are also wild and forest bees, which are of a bristly appearance, and are much more irascible but of superior industry and diligence. Domesticated bees are of two kinds ; the best are short and speckled and of a compact round shape, and the inferior ones are long and have a resemblance to wasps, and also the worst among them are hairy. In Pontus there is a white kind that makes honey twice in a month ; and in the neighbourhood of the river Thermodon there are two kinds, one that makes honey in trees and the other that makes it underground in a threefold arrangement of combs, and is most lavishly productive.
[60] Nature has given bees a sting attached to the stomach, designed for a single blow ; certain persons think that when they have planted their sting they at once die, while some hold that this only occurs if it is driven in so far that some of the gut follows it, but that afterwards the bees are drones and do not make honey, as though their strength had been castrated, and they cease at the same time both to hurt and to benefit. There is a case of a horse being killed by bees. [61] Bees hate foul smells and flee far away from them, even those not due to natural causes ; consequently they attack people scented with perfumes. They themselves are liable to injuries from very many creatures. Wasps and hornets which are degenerate species of the same nature attack them, as also do the species of gnat called mule-flies. Swallows and some other birds ravage them. Frogs lie in wait for them when they are getting water, which is their most important task at the period when they are producing offspring. [62] And not only the frogs that beset ponds and rivers but also toads come of their own accord and crawling up to the doorways blow through them ; thereupon the guard flies out and is immediately snapped up ; and it is said that frogs do not feel a bee's sting. Sheep too are the enemies of bees, which with difficulty disentangle themselves from their wool. Also the smell of crabs being boiled near them is fatal to them.
{20.} L [63] Moreover bees suffer diseases due to their own nature. A symptom of these is a gloomy torpidity, both when they are brought out before the doorway into the warmth of the sun and food is served to them by others and when they die and the others carry them out and escort their obsequies in the manner of persons conducting a funeral. When this pestilence carries off the king the commons mourn with abject grief, not collecting food and not going out of the hive ; they only mass themselves round his body with a sorrowful buzzing. Consequently the throng is separated and he is taken away from it ; otherwise they keep gazing at his lifeless body and never stop mourning. Then also, unless help is brought to them, they die of hunger. Consequently their health is judged by their gaiety and brightness.
[64] There are also diseases that affect their work: when they do not fill the combs full, it is called claron, and blapsigonia if they do not bring their offspring to maturity.
{21.} L [65] Also an echo is detrimental to bees with its repercussion that alarms them by striking them with an alternating blow ; fog too is detrimental. Also spiders are in the highest degree hostile ; when they have succeeded in weaving a web over the combs they kill the grubs. Even the moth, that cowardly and ignoble creature that flutters up to lamps when they are lit, brings disaster, and not in one way only, for it both devours the combs itself and leaves excrement from which grubs are produced ; also wherever it walks it weaves a covering of cobwebs chiefly made from the down on its wings. [66] Moreover moths are born in the wood itself that specially attack the combs. And another bane is their greed for food, as their belly is moved, specially in the spring time, by their devouring a surfeit of flowers. Olive oil indeed kills not only bees but all insects, especially if they are placed in the sun after their head has been anointed. [67] Sometimes also they themselves cause their own death, by greedily devouring honey when they perceive that it is being taken away, whereas normally they are extremely thrifty and make a practice of driving away wasteful and greedy bees just the same as lazy and slothful ones. Also their own honey is noxious to them, and if it is smeared on their backs they die. To so many foes and so many disasters - and how small a fraction of them I am recounting ! - is this beneficent creature exposed. The remedies we will speak of in their proper places ; for at present we are discussing their nature.
{22.} L [68] They delight in the clash and clang of bronze, and collect together at its summons ; which shows that they also possess the sense of hearing. When their work is done and their brood reared, though they have accomplished all their duty they nevertheless have a ritual exercise to perform, and they range abroad in the open and soar on high, tracing circles in flight, and only when this is finished do they return to take food. [69] Their life at longest, granted that hostile attacks and accidents are encountered successfully, lasts seven years. It is stated that the hives have never lasted in their entirety beyond ten years. Some people think that dead bees come to life again if they are kept indoors in winter and then exposed to the heat of the sun in spring and kept warm with hot fig-wood ashes ; {23.} L [70] but that when entirely lost they can be restored by being covered with fresh ox-paunches together with mud, or according to Virgil { Georg_4.284 } with the dead body of bullocks, just as wasps and hornets are brought to life from horses' bodies and beetles from those of asses, since nature can change some things from one kind into another. But all these creatures are seen to pair, and nevertheless their offspring possess almost the same nature as that of bees.
{24.} L [71] Wasps make their nests high up, of mud, and in them make cells of wax ; hornets make them in caverns or underground ; all of these have hexagonal cells, and make their combs of bark, like spiders' webs. The actual offspring are not uniform but vary - one flies out while another is in the pupa and another in the grub ; and all of these stages are in the autumn, not the spring. They grow chiefly at full moon. [72] The wasps called ichneumon-flies - they are smaller than the others - kill one kind of spider called phalangium and carry them to their nests and then smear them over, and from these by incubating produce their own species. Moreover they all feed on flesh, contrary to bees which never touch a body. But wasps hunt larger flies and after cutting off their heads carry away the rest of the body.
[73] The forest variety of hornets live in hollow trees, hibernating in winter like the rest of insects ; they do not live beyond the age of two. Their sting is rarely not followed by fever. Some authorities state that twenty-seven hornet-stings will kill a human being. Another kind that seems less fierce has two classes - workers, smaller in size, which die in winter, and mothers, which last two years : these are not fierce at all. [74] They make nests in spring, usually with four entrances, in which to breed the workers. When these have been reared, they then make other larger nests, in which they may now produce those who are to be mothers. Then the workers begin to function, and feed the mothers. The mothers are of a wider shape, and it is doubtful whether they possess stings, because they do not come out. These also have their drones. Some people hold the view that all these insects lose their stings towards winter, Neither the hornet nor the wasp kind have kings, nor do they swarm, but their numbers are continually renewed by offspring.
{25.} L [75] Among these is a fourth genus, the silk moth, which occurs in Assyria; it is larger than the kinds mentioned above. Silk-moths make their nests of mud like a sort of salt ; they are attached to a stone, and are so hard that they can scarcely be pierced with javelins. In these nests they make combs on a larger scale than bees do, and then produce a bigger grub.
{26.} L [76] These creatures are also produced in another way. A specially large grub changes into a caterpillar with two projecting horns of a peculiar kind, and then into what is called a cocoon, and this turns into a chrysalis and this in six months into a silk-moth. They weave webs like spiders, producing a luxurious material for women's dresses, called silk. The process of unravelling these and weaving the thread again was first invented in Cos by a woman named Pamphile, daughter of Plateas, who has the undeniable distinction of having devised a plan to reduce women's clothing to nakedness.
{27.} L [77] Silk-moths are also reported to be born in the island of Cos, where vapour out of the ground creates life in the blossom of the cypress, terebinth, ash and oak that has been stripped off by rain. First however, it is said, small butterflies are produced that are bare of down, and then as they cannot endure the cold they grow shaggy tufts of hair and equip themselves with thick jackets against winter, scraping together the down of leaves with the roughness of their feet ; this is compressed by them into fleeces and worked over by carding with their claws, and then drawn out into woof-threads, and thinned out as if with a comb, and afterwards taken hold of and wrapped round their body in a coiled nest. [78] Then (they say) they are taken away by a man, put in earthenware vessels and reared with warmth and a diet of bran, and so a peculiar kind of feathers sprout out, clad with which they are sent out to other tasks ; but tufts of wool plucked off are softened with moisture and then thinned out into threads with a rush spindle. Nor have even men been ashamed to make use of these dresses, because of their lightness in summer : so far have our habits departed from wearing a leather cuirass that even a robe is considered a burden ! All the same we so far leave the Assyrian silk-moth to women.
{28.} L [79] To these may be not ineptly joined the nature of spiders, which deserves even exceptional admiration. There are several kinds of spiders, but they need not be described, as they are so well known. The name of phalangium is given to a kind of spider that has a harmful bite and a small body of variegated colour and pointed shape, and advances by leaps and bounds. A second species of spider is black, with very long fore legs. All spiders have legs with two joints. [80] Of the wolf-spiders the smallest do not weave a web, but the larger ones live in the ground and spin tiny anterooms in front of their holes. A third kind of the same species is remarkable for its scientific method of construction ; it sets up its warp-threads, and its own womb suffices to supply the material needed for this considerable work, whether because the substance of its intestines is thus resolved at a fixed time, as Democritus holds, or because it has inside it some power of producing wool : with such careful use of its claw and such a smooth and even thread it spins the warp, employing itself as a weight. [81] It starts weaving at the centre, twining in the woof in a circular round, and twists the meshes into an unloosenable knot, spreading them out at intervals that are always regular but continually grow less narrow. How skilfully it conceals the snares that lurk in its checkered net ! How unintentional appears to be the density of the close warp and the plan of the woof, rendered by a sort of scientific smoothing automatically tenacious ! How its bosom bellies to the breezes so as not to reject things that come to it ! [82] You might think the threads had been left by a weary weaver stretching in front at the top ; but they are difficult to see, and, like the cords in hunting-nets, when the quarry comes against them throw it into the bosom of the net. With what architectural skill is the vaulting of the actual cave designed ! and how much more hairy it is made, to give protection against cold ! How distant it is from the centre, and how its intention is concealed, although it is really so roofed in that it is impossible to see whether somebody is inside or not ! [83] Then its strength - when is it broken by the winds ? what quantity of dust weighs it down ? When the spider is practising its art and learning to weave, the breadth of the web often reaches between two trees and the length of the thread stretches down from the top of the tree and there is a quick return right up the thread from the ground, and the spider goes up and brings down the threads simultaneously. But when a catch falls into the web, how watchfully and alertly it runs to it ! although it may be clinging to the edge of the net, it always runs to the middle, because in that way it entangles the prey by shaking the whole. [84] When the web is torn it at once restores it to a finished condition by patching it. And spiders actually hunt young frogs and lizards, first wrapping up their mouth with web and then finally gripping both lips with their jaws, giving a show worthy of the amphitheatre when it comes off. Also auguries are obtained from the spider : for instance, when the rivers are going to rise they raise their webs higher ; also they weave their web in fine weather and reweave it in cloudy weather, and consequently a number of spiders' webs is a sign of rain. People think that it is the female that weaves and the male that hunts, and that thus the married pair do equal shares of service.
{29.} L [85] Spiders couple with the haunches, and produce grubs resembling eggs - for their mode reproduction also must not be deferred, as insects have scarcely any other method ; and they lay them all into their webs, but scattered, because they jump about and lay them in the process. The phalangium spiders only incubate in the actual cave a large number of grubs which when hatched out devour the mother, and often the father too, for he helps to incubate. They produce broods of as many as three hundred, whereas all the other kinds produce fewer ; and they sit on the eggs three days. They take four weeks to become full-grown spiders.
{30.} L [86] Land scorpions also like spiders produce grubs resembling eggs and die in the same way as spiders ; they are a horrible plague, poisonous like snakes, except that they inflict a worse torture by despatching the victim with a lingering death lasting three days, their wound being always fatal to girls and almost absolutely so to women, but to men only in the morning, when they are coming out of their holes, before they emit their yet unused poison by some accidental stroke. [87] Their tail is always engaged in striking and does not stop practising at any moment, lest it should ever miss an opportunity ; it strikes both a sideway stroke and one with the tail bent up. Apollodorus states that these insects emit a white poison, and he divides them into nine kinds, chiefly by their colours, a superfluous task, since he does not let us know which he pronounces to be the least deadly. He says that some have a pair of stings, and that the males are fiercest - for he attributes coupling to these creatures - but that they can be recognised by their long slender shape ; [88] and that all are poisonous at midday, when they have got hot from the warmth of the sun, and also that when they are thirsty they cannot have their fill of drinking. It is also agreed that those with six joints in the tail are more savage - for the majority have five. This curse of Africa is actually given the power of flight by a south wind, which supports their arms when they spread them out like oars ; Apollodorus before mentioned definitely states that some possess wings. [89] The Psylli tribe, who by importing the poisons of all the other countries for their own profit have filled Italy with foreign evils, have tried to bring these creatures here also, but they have proved unable to live this side of the climate of Sicily. Nevertheless they are sometimes seen in Italy, though these are harmless, and in many other places, for instance in the neighbourhood of Pharos in Egypt. [90] In Scythia they kill even pigs, which normally are exceptionally immune to such poisons, black pigs indeed more quickly, if they plunge into water. For a human victim the ashes of the creatures themselves drunk in wine are thought to be a cure. It is thought that to be dipped in oil is a great disaster to geckoes as well as scorpions ; but geckoes at least are harmless ; these too are bloodless, and are shaped like a lizard ; equally scorpions are believed to do no harm whatever to any bloodless creatures. [91] Some think that they also devour their own offspring, and that only one is left, a specially clever one that by perching on his mothers haunches secures himself by this position against both her tail and her bite ; and that this one is the avenger of the rest, as he finally kills their parent with a blow from above. They are produced in broods of eleven.
{31.} L These geckoes in a certain manner have the nature of chameleons, living only on dew and on spiders as well.
{32.} L [92] The life-history of the cicada is similar. Of this there are two kinds : the smaller ones that come out first and perish latest - these however are mute ; subsequent is the flight of those that sing: they are called Singers, and the smaller ones among them grass-hoppers, but the former are more vocal. The males in either class sing, but the females are silent. These creatures are used as food by the eastern races, even the Parthians with their abundant resources ; they prefer the males before mating and the females afterwards, being seduced by their eggs, which are white. They couple lying on their backs. [93] They have a very sharp prickliness on the back, with which they hollow a place in the ground for their offspring. This is produced first as a grub, and then from this comes what is called the larva ; at the period of the solstices they break the shell of this and fly out, always at night ; at first they are black and hard. This is the only living creature actually without a mouth ; they have instead a sort of row of prickles resembling tongues, this also being on the breast, with which they lick the dew. The breast itself forms a pipe ; the singers use this to sing with, as we shall say. [94] For the rest, there is nothing on the belly. When they are disturbed and fly away, they give out moisture, which is the only proof that they live on dew ; moreover they are the only creatures that have no aperture for the bodily excreta. Their eyes are so dim that if anybody comes near to them contracting and straightening out a finger, they pass by as if it were a leaf flickering. Some people make two other classes of tree-crickets, the twig-cricket which is the larger, and the corn-cricket, which others call the oat-cricket, because it appears at the same time as the crops begin to dry. [95] Tree-crickets do not occur where trees are scarce - consequently they are not found at Cyrene except in the neighbourhood of the town - nor in plains or in chilly or shady woods. These creatures also make some difference between localities ; in the district of Miletus they occur in few places, but there is a river in Cephallania which makes a boundary with a few of them on one side and many on the other ; again in the Regium territory they are all silent but beyond the river in the region of Locri they sing. They have the same wing-structure as bees, but larger in proportion to the body.
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