Apis mellifica

- VERMEULEN Frans
Apis
Apis mellifica
A bee is never as busy as it seems; it's just that it can't buzz any slower.
[Kin Hubbard]
Signs
Apis mellifera. Honeybee.
CLASSIFICATION Apis belongs to the Hymenoptera, an order of insects with four transparent wings, comprising bees, wasps, ants, sawflies, chalcids, horntails, etc. The order includes the best known of the social insects - ants and some species of bees and wasps. Bees and ants are derived evolutionarily from two different lineages of wasps. Bees have given up the carnivorous lifestyle of their wasp ancestors and gather protein from flowers as pollen. The Hymenoptera are the principal insect pollinators of flowering plants, to the extent that many plants cannot reproduce without the helpful intervention of an insect species belonging to this order. They are abundant in most habitats, in particular in tropical and subtropical regions. In the United States bees pollinate more than one hundred different agricultural crops worth about ten billion dollars. Another phenomenon of perhaps even greater ecological significance in the order Hymenoptera, is that of parasitism. Hymenoptera, the most prevalent and successful of insect parasites, exert a profound control over populations of other insects and certain other arthropods-groups that might otherwise overpopulate.
HONEYBEES Any insect of the tribe Apini [family Apidae], which includes all bees that make honey, in a broad sense is a honeybee. In a stricter sense, honeybee applies to any of the four members of the genus Apis. Usually the term is applied to one species, Apis mellifera [formerly called A. mellifica], the domestic honeybee; mellifera means honey-carrier. The other Apis species are confined to Asia. There are also a number of races, or subspecies, and strains of Apis species. 1 Three of the most common European races of bees include Apis mellifera mellifera [Dark Bee], Apis mellifera ligustica [Italian Bee], and Apis mellifera carnica [Carniolan Bee].
Apis mellifica
COLONIES Honeybees live in colonies of thousands of individual bees working co-operatively to maintain the integrity of the hive and to ensure the survival of the next generation of bees. A strong colony will amount to between 40,000 and 70,000 adults, of which one alone will be the queen, or mother, of the whole colony; several hundred will be drones, and all the rest will be worker bees. All honeybees are social insects. There are three castes, or classes: the worker bees, which are undeveloped females; queens, which are larger than the worker bees; and males, or drones, which are larger than the workers and are present only in early summer. Contrary to the workers and queens, drones are stingless. Both queens and workers lay eggs, but only those of the queens are fertilized with the drones' sperm and develop into females. Eggs of the worker bees develop into males. Queens become queens because they are fed royal jelly, a substance produced by the salivary glands of the workers; thus, queen bees are made rather than born. All larvae are fed royal jelly as well, but only for a short period. Only the future queens are continued on the diet. When fully grown, the larvae transform into pupae. A queen emerge in 16 days, workers in three weeks, and drones several days after the workers. After emerging, the queens fight among themselves until only one remains in the hive. She then attacks the old queen, who leaves the nest with a swarm to form a new colony. 2
QUEEN Queen bees have smaller brains than workers, but their ovaries are enormous. Worker bees have undeveloped ovaries, or rather the development of their ovaries is inhibited by queen substance, a substance secreted in the mandibular glands of a queen bee. The quantity of this substance greatly increases at the time of her mating and gets distributed over the whole surface of her body during grooming. Workers crave queen substance and eagerly seek absorption of it by physical contact with the newly mated queen. But, if the inhibition ceases, for example when the queen dies, the workers panic and rush about madly. Setting up a strange sound known as "queenless roaring", the disturbance within the hive is heightened and the workers inform each other about the loss by means of scent dispersion. They immediately set about rearing a new queen from any larva she may have left in a worker cell. Some of the workers may start laying eggs themselves, but they will be capable only of laying unfertilized eggs, hatching only drones. If no new queen is reared, the colony will probably die.
WORKERS Worker bees carefully look after the inmates of royal cells. Yet little respect is paid to the queen once she has emerged. Only when she is ready for her life of egg laying - that is after the mating flight - her royalty is fully acknowledged by all. Honeybees collect nectar and convert it into honey. They also collect pollen, which provides the essential proteins necessary for the rearing of young bees, and propolis, a resinous material from buds of trees. Propolis, also called bee glue, is used for sealing cracks in the hive or for covering foreign objects in the hive that can't be removed. Water is also used to dilute the honey when they consume it.
TEMPERATURE Honeybees take great care to cool the air when it becomes too hot. Tiny droplets of water are brought to the top of the hive, where a group of worker bees are fanning ceaselessly with their wings to evaporate the water. "The bees maintain a uniform temperature of about 34o C in the broodnest regardless of outside temperature. The colony can survive daily maximum temperatures of 49o C if water is available with which they can air-condition the cluster. When the temperature falls below 14o C the bees cease flying, form a tight cluster to conserve heat, and await the return of warm weather. They can survive for several weeks in temperatures of -46o C."3 During winter, worker bees combine their individual heat-producing abilities to regulate the temperature of the brood. They cluster in the area of the hive where the brood is located and adjust their joint metabolic heat production and density of clustering so that the brood temperature remains remarkably constant, at about 34o C, even as outside air temperature drops below freezing.
TASKS Honeybees have developed elaborate social structures to divide the many tasks among the worker bees. These tasks are divided in an age-based fashion; tasks are performed in a specific sequence. The youngest worker bees clean out brood-cells for about three days for reception of the queen's eggs. Then they are nurses to the brood for several days. The worker bees feed the larvae a highly proteinacous substance from glands at the front of their heads. From days 10 to 20, the bees engage in building activities and pollen storage and reception. Around day 20, the bees stand guard at the hive entrance, and after a few days they become foragers. They remain foragers until they die. Research has shown that there is a correspondence between the age-related tasks and the levels of juvenile hormone [JH]. JH lowers the behavioural threshold to many task-related stimuli. Young bees raised in the absence of older foragers will begin to forage precociously. Young bees raised in isolation show increased levels of JH and the tendency to engage in foraging activity. This suggests that JH plays a role in controlling the onset of age-related task performance. The presence of older bees in a hive may inhibit the production of JH in young bees, thus preventing them from engaging in activities normally performed by older bees. As the older bees die, younger bees receive less inhibition and thus have increased levels of JH, promoting behavioural patterns appropriate for older bees. 4
SCHEDULE Bees work according to a tight schedule. Their body clock accurately times their arrival at flowers, allowing them to visit different plants at pre-set times of the day. In turn, the blooms are ready, using their own internal clocks to trigger the release of nectar or open petals in welcome. By dividing the day up between them, flowers avoid competing for the bees' attention.
SMELL The world of bees is mainly governed by smell. Unwelcome visitors at the entrance of the hive are stopped by guard bees, which waft out a fruity aroma. This aroma drives the hive into a frenzy and the bees pour out in a drunken fury, destroying the intruders. Experiments demonstrate that bees react to odours. "Sugar water is placed in small boxes, and, after bees have found them and are making trips to and from the hive, the box is replaced by one just like it, also containing sugar water, but sprinkled inside with flower extract. After the bees have made sufficient trips to get used to the scent, several new unscented boxes are placed beside a new scented one. When the bees return for more sugar, they buzz about the openings of the boxes but finally go inside the scented one. Further, when they are trained to go to one odour - say rose - they will not go to another, such as lavender. That the sense organs are on the antennas is shown by removing parts or all of the antennas from bees trained to certain scented boxes. When the last eight segments are removed from each antenna, the bees cannot distinguish odours. That this result is not due to the shock of the operation is proved by a control experiment in which some bees are first trained to visit blue boxes for sugar water. Then their antennas are removed, and it is found that they still return to the correct boxes."5
DANCING Bees communicate with each other by means of scent dispersion and through the medium of dance. Foragers or scouts return to the hive with information about the sources of food [flowers]. A "round" dance is performed if the source of food is relatively close to the hive. If the distance is greater, a "waggle" dance is performed, consisting of a figure of 8 with a straight run between the loops. The provided information includes the type of the source of food, particularly its quality [the higher the quality, the more intense the dance is performed], and their distance and direction from the hive. New food discoveries are only reported when the colony needs additional food sources, when the new source's distance from the hive is not too great, and when it concerns good quality and adequate quantities. "The most far-reaching research, and research that promises to join mathematics and biology, has been conducted by a mathematician at the University of Rochester, Barbara Shipman. She has described all the different forms of the honeybee dance using a single coherent mathematical or geometric structure [flag manifold]. And interestingly, this structure is also the one that is used in the geometry of quarks, those tiny building blocks of protons and neutrons. From this and technical evidence too complex to present for our purposes, Shipman speculates that the bees are sensitive to or interacting with quantum fields of quarks. Researchers have already established that bees are sensitive to the planet's magnetic field, but they have always attributed it to the presence of a mineral in the bee's abdomen. Shipman's research indicates that the bees perceive these fields through some kind of quantum mechanical interaction between the quantum fields and the atoms in the membranes in certain cells. Shipman says simply, 'The mathematics implies that bees are doing something with quarks.' If Shipman is correct and bees can 'touch' the quantum world of quarks [without 'breaking' it as we do when we try to detect a quark], scientists say it would revolutionize biology, and physicists would have to reinterpret quantum mechanics as well."6
COLOUR PERCEPTION "Bees have three colour receptors to give them full-colour vision, but they see the world differently. One of their receptors is sensitive to ultraviolet [UV] light - a wavelength that we simply cannot see - and, in turn, bees cannot see red; to them it would appear black. In effect the whole of their vision is shifted away from the red end of the spectrum towards ultraviolet, giving them a totally different perception of colour. If we were to perceive the world as bees do, as well as seeing the eerie glow of ultraviolet light, we would find that familiar colours such as purple were replaced by the baffling mix of ultraviolet and yellow known as 'bee's purple'. Overlaying many of these colours would be patterns that had previously been invisible. Flowers would reveal strange markings and the sky would display concentric patterns. We humans cannot see the ultraviolet waves that make these signals visible, but many creatures do peer into this hidden world. ... Because many insects see ultraviolet, flowers use secret markings in this colour to attract insect pollinators. Floral decorations, invisible to human eyes, guide insects such as butterflies and bees to the nectar and pollen at the centre of the flower."7 Colour vision can be demonstrated in bees. Experiments have been done in which a table is put near a beehive, with cards of different colours placed on the table. On each card is set a glass vessel filled with water, and sugar is added to the water in one vessel, for example on the blue card. In its excursions a bee will find the sugar water and, while busily feeding, is marked with paint for the purpose of identification. After the bee has made several trips between the table and the hive, the sugar water is switched to the yellow card. The bee then returns to the blue card as before, even is the card is removed to another position on the table, showing that the bee is reacting to colour and not to position or odour. Similarly, a bee can be trained to respond to yellow or to ultra-violet. Bees trained to red or black cannot discriminate between these two colours, or between them and dark grey. 8
ELECTRICITY Bees are highly sensitive to electrical charges. A bee's whole body is negatively charged. This fact has been exploited by flowers, whose positively charged pollen is able to leap on to any visiting bee thanks to the forces of opposites attracting. If beehives are placed under powerlines, the inhabitants soon swarm and leave; those that stay produce fewer brood cells and in the winter more bees die. In fact, bees seem to hate all electromagnetic fields and will vent their anger on any electrical equipment. But such loathing is far from universal ..."13 Homoeopathically, this might provide an interesting clue in the treatment of patients who are oversensitive [allergic] to electromagnetic fields, if accompanied by the reactions typical of Apis, such as angioneurotic oedemas, restlessness, irritability, tired feeling in the brain, etc. This oversensitiveness sometimes even results in the exclusion from family life!
EMOTIONS "In The Queen Must Die, contemporary beekeeper William Longgood's knowledge of bees comes from his feelings and intuition and what a long intimacy with these insects has taught him. He tells of bees grieving over the loss of a queen, making war cries, or humming with contentment. He described them as angry, fierce, calm, playful, and aggressive and distinguishes their happy sounds from their distressed ones. We can relate to what he says. We know about grief and distress calls. We hum too when we are content and emit all manner of sounds to express how we feel as we go about our day. ... Those who do spend time with bees report that they are calming to be around and invoke peacefulness. The bees' contentment is apparently contagious. ... Before the industrialized age, people all over the world linked bees to peace, harmony, propriety, renewal, fertility, industry, and eloquence. Bees' historical association with peace, harmony, and propriety, for instance, is so strong that people believed that in times of war bees would sicken and die, and that a hive would not do well if it were stolen. It was also believed that bees would react to the immorality of their beekeepers with a stinging fury, and this notion of honeybees as guardians of morals is still common in France."9
STING Bees can kill each other with their stings, but if they attack human beings they cannot withdraw the sting from human flesh, and so die. Queen bees usually only sting other queens, while workers will only sting other workers and then usually only to defend themselves. For the worker bee the sting seems to represent her power to defend her home, while the queen uses it to defend her status.
EFFECTS OF STING "The bee, like the wasp, has two kinds of glands, one secreting an acid poison into a reservoir-bag; the other [Dufour's gland] producing an alkaline oily liquid, secreted directly into a pear-shaped receptacle at the top of the chitinous sting. Through regulating valves the bee can discharge either the acid or the alkaline fluid into the sheath of the sting. Only the acid secretion stored in the poison sac is supposed to be toxic, while the alkaline secretion serves to clean and lubricate the sting, and perhaps for other purposes within the hive. ... Systemic effects of bee stings do occur, although they are relatively rare, considering the frequency of the incidents. The symptoms, whether one explains them as 'allergic' or not, are there: confusion of thoughts, confused and incoherent speech for a short while, a heavy, dull head, unconsciousness or fainting, alternating heat and chill, great anxiety and dyspnoea, prostration with chilliness and a slight rigidity of the neck, spasmodic contractions of the extensors of the legs, twitchings of many muscles; palpitations with strained heart beat, while the peripheral pulse was feeble or imperceptible."10 The typical dermatological expression for honey bee venom is a raised white weal with central red spot of about 10 mm which appears a few minutes after the sting, and lasts for about 20 min. There may be oedema and pruritus; the initial intense pain will last only minutes and symptoms should resolve in a few days.
PROTECTION "Certain types of clothing can be good protection against a bee sting; white or light-coloured clothing with a smooth finish is less likely to excite bees to attack. Leather is particularly irritating to bees, but they will also become disturbed with brightly coloured, dark, rough or woolly material. Bees also seem to become irritated over perspiration odours, perfumes, suntan lotions and hair sprays."11
VENOM It takes ten thousand bees to produce one gram of pure venom. Bee venom is a highly complex chemical substance which contains haemolysing agents similar to those found in snake venoms, further histamine, small amounts of formic acid, and some protein-like substances. When locally applied the latter produce coagulation of fibrinogen and an increased permeability of the capillaries of the skin. Due to the lowered surface tension the osmotic pressure is reduced, thus making diffusion easier, so that fluid can enter a given space more readily. Any application of cold reduces oedema by impeding the diffusion of fluid and decreasing the permeability of the capillaries. According to the chief neurologist of the MS Center at Georgetown University Hospital, USA, apamin might help MS patients to improve the conductivity of nerve sheaths. "The active components of honey bee venom include enzymes, other smaller proteins and peptides, and amines. The principal small proteins and peptides are melittin, apamin, and peptide 401. Melittin constitutes about 50% of the venom dry weight; it hydrolyzes cell membranes causing changes in permeability and is most responsible for the pain associated with the sting. Peptide 401 is also known as 'mast cell degranulating peptide' and causes mast cells to release histamine as they degranulate, setting up an inflammatory reaction. Enzymes include phospholipase A2 [11% of dry weight], which is non-toxic when pure but in concert with melittin is a major haemolytic factor. Phospholipase A2 is a major venom allergen and is responsible for inducing IgE-mediated anaphylaxis. Hyaluronidase, which is also common in the venom of other animals [e.g., wasps, spiders, snakes], causes changes in cell membranes and is considered the major 'spreading factor'. It is also the second most common allergen in honeybee venom. Honey bee venom also includes some physiologically active amines [histamine, dopamine, norepinephrine]. 12
FATALITIES Most fatalities from bee [and wasp] stings occur in hypersensitive individuals; death is most often induced by a single sting, and occurs most often within 1 hour after the sting. The victim is typically over 40 years of age and stung on the head or neck. Most deaths are caused by respiratory dysfunction with the second most common cause being anaphylaxis; arteriosclerosis may be a compounding factor. Large numbers of bee stings can also cause death in non-hypersensitive individuals. The LD50 of bee venom for a human has been estimated to be 500-1500 stings. Mejia et al cites five people receiving >1000 stings, who manifested acute renal problems, yet four of the five survived. 13
ALLERGY "The Insect Allergy Committee of the American Academy of Allergy studied over 3,000 completed questionnaires from persons experiencing allergic reactions to the stings of bees and wasps, of which 2,606 were recorded and analyzed [IAC, 1965]. Of these, 13.3% reported only 'local' reactions; 16.1% reported 'slight general' reactions, in which there might be such symptoms as a few hives or itching beyond that which local swelling and pain might be expected to produce; 43.6% reported 'moderate general' reactions; 24.2% reported life-threatening 'severe general' reactions; and 2.8% reported 'delayed' reactions, in which the time of onset of reactions was an hour or more after the sting. Symptoms indicating 'severe general' reactions were dyspnoea, swelling in the throat, shock, and unconsciousness, the latter affecting 62.2% of the persons in the 'severe general' reaction group. A sharp rise in the proportion of serious reactions in both sexes after age 30 suggested increasing sensitivity as the total number of stings received would mount over the years. A particularly disquieting finding was that responses to stings might be completely normal before the occurrence of a particular sting that produced a life-threatening allergic response."14
SPEECH As the "birds of the Muses" bees were bestowers of eloquence [by association with 'honeyed' words] and song. Greek poets and orators such as Homer, Pindar, Sappho and Sophocles were believed to have their lips touched with honey in infancy. "The Greeks, charmed by the magic of the spoken word and the sound of the human voice, compared their greatest orators and singers to the bees who by the work of their mouths produce delicious and strengthening honey; and also another honey, spoken of by Xenophon, Horace, and Pliny, which after a moment begins to trouble the hearer's thought and to keep it in confusion. Pertaining to the first of these two kinds of honey, that is, to wise and virtuous eloquence, are the fables telling how the bees of Thrace died all at once at the moment when the heart of the inspired singer Orpheus ceased to beat; also how the bees of Hymettus put drops of honey on the lips of the child Plato as he slept, and fed with their finest nectar the baby who was the future poet Pindar. This legend was later transposed in The Golden Legend to apply to one of the most eloquent of the Christian pontiffs, St. Ambrose, the illustrious bishop of Milan: as a sleeping baby, it was said, the bees came to him and one by one entered his mouth and from there shot skyward like arrows. Seeing this, his father cried, 'Blessed be the Lord! My son shall be holy before him and great in the company of men.' Among the Hebrews, the bee was related to the idea of language because of its name, dbure, and the Hebraic root dbr, which means word or speech. In the Orient, the Hindus dedicated the bee to the cult of the divine Word, Bhagavat, represented as within a white tent, robed in yellow and girdled with a rope of sweet-smelling flowers which the bees are busily plundering."15
MYTHOLOGY Since prehistoric times bees and honey have assumed a sacred role in the mythology of cultures worldwide. Beelike creatures were found on cave paintings dating fifty thousand years ago. Chinese legends speak of a giant race of bees living in the K'unolun Mountains. Ancient cultures believed bees to be endowed with divine gifts and mysterious powers. Wherever the Earth Mother or Great Mother was worshiped - the goddess of fertility, wildlife, and agriculture - bees also had a sacred status. Analogous to the Earth Mother's annual renewal of fertility, bees disappeared in the winter and reappeared in the spring. Mohammed taught that the bee is the only creature ever spoken to directly by God. In Islamic tradition bees represented intelligence, wisdom, harmlessness, and faithfulness. Bees were thought to "practise useful things, work in the daytime, and obey their ruler." They were attributed numerous virtues: they don't eat food gathered by others, dislike dirt and bad smells, "they dislike the darkness of indiscretion, the clouds of doubt, the storm of revolt, the smoke of the prohibited, the water of superfluity, the fire of lust." [Ibn al-Athir]. In this traditional mode, honeybees and their hive symbolize the social virtues that make nations great: respect for authority, submission to law, honest hard work, economy, and justice. The ancient Greeks called Zeus the Bee Man because as an infant he was hidden in a cave and guarded by bees that nourished him with honey. To the Greeks, bees symbolized fresh incarnations; "Bee" or "Melissa" was the name given to a soul about to be born. Souls were believed to come down from the Moon goddess Artemis in the form of bees. Only those souls who had lived a righteous life were called Melissae, returning afterwards to heaven, as the bee returned to her hive. 16
CHRISTIANITY Peter of Padua called Christ "Apis Aetherea", for, "as the bee flies up into the air, she is a symbol of the soul who enters the kingdom of heaven." Following the Egyptian myth that bees were born from the tears of the sun god Ra, Christian legend has it that bees were created from the tears Christ shed on the cross. The sweetness of honey and the sting of collecting it became a metaphor for the nature of Jesus himself and the agony of his passion. To obtain higher knowledge one has to suffer. Regarded as never sleeping, the bee represented Christian vigilance and zeal. In addition, the beehive became a Christian metaphor for the ordered, chaste and charitable life of monastic communities. The misconception that bees reproduce as chastely as the flowers they pollinate made them emblems of the Virgin Mary. The biblical land of Canaan flowing with milk and honey was an image of spiritual as well as physical plenty. 17 The concept of the hive as a community life that is wisely ruled, peaceful, and fruitful, and under the governance of one single head, made some big monasteries in medieval France take a name derived from the life of the bees [French abeilles], such as the Cistercian abbey of Melleray.
CHASTITY The virtue exemplified most particularly by the bee is that of chastity. Virgil has sung of the pure life of the bees "who do not abandon themselves to love nor weaken themselves with pleasures, and know not either the union of the sexes nor the labour of giving birth." Plutarch goes further and assures us that bees become angry if a man approaches them directly from a woman's bed, and will aim their stings at libertines. 18
RESURRECTION "Being one of the few preservatives the ancients knew, along with salt, honey was widely regarded as a substance of resurrection-magic. In Asia Minor from 3500 to 1750 BC the dead were embalmed in honey and placed in foetal position in burial vases or pithoi, ready for rebirth. 'To fall into a jar of honey' became a common metaphor for 'to die.' The pithos represented the womb of the Goddess under her name of Pandora. 'All-giver', and honey became her sacred essence. Myths present many symbolic assurances that the Goddess would restore life to the dead through her magic 'bee-balm.' Worshippers of Demeter called her 'the pure mother bee', and at her Thesmophoria festivals displayed honey-cakes shaped like female genitals. The symbol of Aphrodite at Eryx was a golden honeycomb. ... Bees are still called hymenoptera, 'veil-winged', after the hymen or veil that covered the inner sanctum of the Goddess's temples, the veil having its physical counterpart in women's bodies. Defloration was a ritual penetration of the veil under the 'hymeneal' rules of the Goddess, herself entitled Hymen in the character of patroness of the wedding night and 'honey-moon.' The honeymoon spanned a lunar month, usually in May, the month of pairings, named after the Goddess as the Virgin Maya. In an archaic period, sacred kings seem to have been destroyed after a 28-day honeymoon with the Goddess, spanning a lunar cycle, as the queen destroys her drone-bridegroom - by tearing out his genitals. As applied to ordinary weddings rather than sacrificial dramas, the honeymoon of a lunar month would include a menstrual period, the real source of what was euphemistically called moon-honey. A bridegroom contracted the source of life by copulating with his bride during menstruation, according to the oldest Oriental belief. ... A combination of honey and menstrual blood was once considered the universal elixir of life, the 'nectar' manufactured by Aphrodite and her sacred bees, which kept the very gods alive. Similarly, the great secret of Norse mythology was that the gods' nectar of wisdom, inspiration, literacy, magic, and eternal life was a combination of honey and 'wise blood' from the great Cauldron in the belly of Mother Earth - though a late patriarchal revision claimed this hydromel or 'honey-liquid' was a mixture of honey with the blood of a male sacrificial victim known as Wisest of Men."19
FOLKLORE Two girl's names are connected to bees: Melissa, meaning honeybee, and Deborah, queen bee. Having a bee in one's bonnet refers to having fixed ideas or being crazy. "Telling the bees" of a death, or important event, is to send a message to the next world or to the spirits. It was thought that if the bees weren't told, they would take offence and leave. According to another popular belief, virgins were supposed to be able to pass through a swarm of bees without getting stung. According to German and Scottish folklore, the soul may come out of the body of a sleeping person in the form of a bee.
PARALLELS "It is known that cold weakens the virulence of bee venom, whereas heat intensifies its effect. It is also known that bee stings are more dangerous on hot days and in the tropics than in cool weather and colder climates ... The very characteristic thirstlessness in the symptom picture of Apis, even during fever, can be traced to what appears as the key condition of Apis - oedema - as the patient is so to speak internally drowned in his own fluids and his reflex stimulus of thirst inhibited, to protect the organism against the additional intake of fluid ... The common field of action of Apis is represented by the cavities of the body, the brain ventricles, the pleural cavity, the pericardial sac, the abdominal cavity, the synovial cavities of the joints, the cavity surrounding the testicles, the amnion sac in the case of threatened abortion, cysts, which are pathological cavities filled with serum, like the ovarian and other cysts, and finally the whole system of intercellular spaces, countless microscopic cavities, spread throughout the entire body, and filled with fluid when oedema occurs, as in nephritis. ... This enormous network of cavities, called the interstitial or intercellular spaces, is spread throughout the body like a huge assembly of combs. A slide of oedematous tissue, viewed through the microscope, reveals a network of cellules filled with liquid, like the honeycomb cells of the bee. ... The bee is a restless being, it flits from place to place, never staying too long with one flower. It becomes displeased and angry when disturbed in its work. At other times, when not working, it is seemingly apathetic, and when hibernating, lapses into a kind of comatose state ... The dreams of the provers are full of flying activities, of travelling from place to place, of taking great leaps, of trying out a flying apparatus, and besides, dreams of business, of care and toil."20
PROVINGS •• [1] Hering - self-experimentation; method: ingestion of 'poison of one bee.'
•• [2] Humphries - self-experimentations, 1852; method: 1 drop of a tincture 'made by irritating bees in a bottle and then pouring alcohol on them'; 2 drops of 1st dil.; 2 drops of 2nd dil.; 6 drops of 6th dil.
•• [3] Welmuth, Bigelow, Bishop, Hays, and Kellogg - self-experimentations; method: tincture, manner not stated.
[1-3] Encyclopaedia Britannica. [4] Llano, Division of Labor in the Honeybee; Model Systems in Neuroethology. [5] Buchsbaum, Animals without Backbones. [6] Lauck, The Voice of the Infinite in the Small.
[7] Downer, Supernatural : The Unseen Powers of Animals. [8] Buchsbaum, ibid. [9] Lauck, ibid.
[10] Leeser, Actions and Medicinal Use of Insects, BHJ, April 1959. [11] Turkington, Guide to Poisons and Antidotes. [12-13] Vetter and Visscher, Bites and Stings of medically important venomous arthropods; website. [14] Ebeling, Urban Entomology, chapter 9, Pests Attacking Man and His Pets; website. [15] Charbonneau-Lassay, The Bestiary of Christ. [16-17] Dale-Green, Apis Mellifica : A Study in the Symbolism of the Honeybee, BHJ, July 1959. [18] Charbonneau-Lassay, ibid. [19] Walker, The Women's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets. [20] Gutman, Apis Mellifica - A Remedy Study, BHJ, April 1960.
Affinity
CELLULAR TISSUE [EYES; FACE; FAUCES; OVARIES]. SEROUS CAVITIES. SKIN. KIDNEYS. BLADDER. Nerves. Respiration. Heart. Blood. * RIGHT SIDE. Left side. Right to left.
Modalities
Worse: HEAT [ROOM; weather; drinks; fire; bed]. TOUCH. After sleep. Late afternoon [3-4 p.m.]. PRESSURE. Suppressed eruptions. Closed room. Lying down.
Better: COLD [AIR; bathing; uncovering; applications]. Slight expectoration. Motion. Changing position. Sitting erect.
Main symptoms
M Possible scenario of the Apis situation.
Brought up in a family where one of the parents [most likely the mother] was paramount, the Apis patient encountered from an early age a life full of rules, duties and tasks. With one of the parents absent [most probably the father], whether physically or psychologically, there was no escape from the penetrating, dictatorial and restraining influence of the mother, who ruled the family like a godmother. This situation inhibited the Apis patient, usually female, in her natural development towards freely engaging in activities normally performed by people of her own age. Apis patients seem to end up easily in similar behavourial patterns as their mother [or father], thus sacrificing their need for personal development. Housewives, for example, would have liked to continue with their studies [the absorption of fertilizing, stimulating elements from outside the hive], but instead, felt forced to submit themselves to the traditional role patterns of family orientation. Instead of "swarming" - to leave behind their background or conditioning, and, as an act of faith, to take a leap in the dark - they remain in the hive. Dreaming of freedom [flying away], her life is a life of service to the hive, and its consequential strict bee-hive-iour. The jealousy of the Apis patient is directed towards women who were able to break this pattern of submission. In fact, Apis patients may well be compared with honeybees that didn't take time to savour the honey of their endeavours. They never grew their own blossoms. Activities would be more productive and sweeter if they would take the time to enjoy them.
The opposite polarity can be recognised in Apis children or youngsters who break free from parental control by precociously engaging in activities opposed to the strict family traditions [disposition to contradict].
M Irritable, nervous, FIDGETY persons hard to please.
Busy, fruitlessly busy, insane loquacity, undertakes many things, perseveres in nothing.
Desires company but not affection.
When disturbed becomes full of obdurate rage. [Gibson]
Especially during menses.
M Focus on external events and domestic issues.
• "The main preoccupation of Apis patients seems to be on outward events - the domestic situation, work, and practical matters. With this focus on external events, we see an inability to focus on deep inner issues. If the patient is focused at all on inner growth, it will be in rather simple ways, such as positive visualization. These people are intensely loyal to their network of family and friends. It is very important to keep strong relationships intact. Anything that threatens the security and harmony of the home is viewed with hostility. The jealousy of Apis is similar. Flirtation is seen as a threat to the home, almost as much as a personal threat. ... They have a forceful nature, so they are usually able to accomplish a lot. Many of these patients are described by relatives as 'workaholics.' ... Very strong focus on business and work. They want to achieve; they are very ambitious. But it is not an egotistical type of ambition. Generally, these are not egotistical people. Rather, they are industrious for its own sake. They just like to be doing things. "1
M Neglect.
• "I have wondered since reading about bees, whether it could be useful for women who feel neglected by their husbands. They are like the worker bees; their life is joyless, their lives full of care and toil in a possibly sexless existence. When women revolt against this they may well feel towards their husbands as the workers feel towards the drones who eventually, when they get older, are denied food and are evicted from the colony. Some of the mental symptoms extracted from the provings of Apis speak for themselves in this regard, for example:
• Lets everything fall out of her hand, or breaks things and laughs over it.
• Cannot bring her thoughts to bear upon anything definite or any subject continuously.
• Great tearfulness, cannot help crying.
• Cannot bear to be left alone.
• Languid and listless.
• When asked if sick says nothing is the matter.
• Irritable, contradictory humour, nothing pleases her.
• All her ideas turn round jealousy.
• Loquacity.
• Agitated, impatient, apprehensive.
• Ailments from fright, rage, vocation, jealousy, or hearing bad news.
Here we see even more clearly the relationship between Apis and Natrum mur.; and probably Sep. also." [Thompson]
M A state of cheerful levity.
• "Thus it seems that the primary action of this remedy, the peculiarity of its effect in the proving, is to produce a state of cheerful levity, from a mild mirthful restlessness up to a fruitless, frenzied, uncontrolled activity. The greater the intensity of the Apis state, then the more exaggerated will be this state. The stupor, the debility, and even loss of consciousness as Hering describes, are all to be expected after such intense frenzied delirium - these are an expected [secondary] response of a normal organism to such a primary reaction. Now, if the Apis disease is less intense, then the reaction will be more of simple mirth and frivolity, rather than of the extreme busy, delirious frenzy. ... The patient suffering Apis disease, may 'tell' us they are well not only verbally, but even physically, through their gestures, motions, behaviour, etc."2
M JEALOUS persons, women, esp. widows.
• "Among the bees the Queen is paramount, the drones and workers serve her. Apis is a jealous widow, deprived though not depraved, amorous, vain and hard to please. She is bossy and wants to run the world, a breaker of rules; absentminded, apathetic, awkward, drops things and breaks things [whereas Nat-m. stumbles]. There is a sting in her gossip; direct malice, not devious. She is impatient, dictatorial, whiny, fidgety, averse to constriction, upset by trifles, irked by small talk, procrastinating, worse after sleep and violently aggravated by anything hot." [Wright Hubbard]
The jealousy may be directed against any female who questions their efficiency and organisation skills, in household or at work; e.g. mother-in-law, sister-in-law, daughter having her own family, new colleague at work, etc.
M CAUSELESS WEEPING.
M Clumsiness, physical and mental.
Drops things; laughing at misfortune; laughing over serious matters; silly laughing.
• "Children, girls and women who, though generally careful, become AWKWARD and let things fall while handling them." [Farrington]
More healthy state:
Mentally sharp and observing. Quick-tempered; unexpected and intense outbursts.
Want quick, practical solutions for problems.
Forceful and direct. Not concerned about being polite.
But: emotional instability and unpredictability.
[Compare: Fear that something will burst, which physically is expressed by fear of having a stroke, and fear something will burst in abdomen when coughing or straining.]
M Children.
• "The Apis child is always restless, always wants to keep himself busy. These children have a kind of fickle inconsistency and slow march of ideas. Remember Apis when this kind of dulness is present along with restlessness and [busy] activity - the child constantly changes his occupation. ... I have found Apis indicated very often in high society pampered children."3
• "They are individualists, and find it difficult to integrate into community life." [Grandgeorge]
G Warm-blooded persons; WORSE in WARM and STUFFY ROOM.
At night pushes off the bedcovers in search of coolness.
May be chilly [mainly felt in the extremities], but even then there is a desire for cool air.
G RIGHT-sided affections [paralysis, erysipelas, ovaritis, ovarian cyst].
G Perspiration [chiefly or only of the head].
Sweat may have a musk-like odour.
G THIRSTLESSNESS in nearly all complaints.
Or: Drinks often, but little at a time.
G < Lying down. > Motion.
G BURNING, DARTING, STINGING PAINS.
> COLD, WASHING or MOISTENING the part with cold water.
Burning and stinging pain in swollen parts, as if the parts were pricked with pins and needles, < touch. Skin very sensitive to touch. Swelling rosy, waxy. SHARP and SUDDEN PAROXYSMS of PAIN. And Nervous restlessness or great prostration. G Suddenly migrating pains, from one part to another. G Extreme sensitiveness to touch. G OEDEMATOUS SWELLING, SEROUS EFFUSIONS and URTICARIA, sudden appearance. DROPSY internally and externally. Angioneurotic oedema. Oedema glottidis. G Vertigo. < Lying down and closing eyes. > Walking about.
P Brain feels tired or numb.
P BAG-LIKE, PUFFY SWELLING under the eyes.
P Thyroid dysfunction and ovarian troubles [mostly on the right side]. [Gibson]
And Irregular menses.
P Urticaria in asthmatic troubles; from change of weather; during fever; during perspiration.
Urticaria after violent exercise.
Urticaria from shellfish.
[1] Morrison, A series of Apis cases: Revealing new essence information, IFH 1991. [2] Dimitriadis, Developing an image of Apis mellifica, HL 2/93. [3] Shah, The Bee or not the Bee, HL 2/96.
Rubrics
Mind
Plays antics [1]. Desire to break things [2]. Busy [2]. Childish behaviour [2], after delivery [1/1]. Confusion of mind > eating [1]. Thoughts of death without fear [1]. Delirium, declares she is well [2], indistinct loquacity [1]. Delusion, he himself was dead [1], she is pregnant [1], he cannot walk, must run or hop [1]. Fear of birds [1], of organic heart disease [2], of pins [2]. Frivolous [1]. Insanity, busy [3]; erotic [3]. Irritability when questioned [1]. Jealousy [2]. Mirth, simulating hilarity when feeling wretched [1/1]. Shrieking, feels as if she must shriek [1]. Stupefaction during heat [2]. Weeping, cannot weep though sad [1].
Vertigo
From sneezing [1; Seneg.]. Spells of vertigo in spring [1/1].
Head
Pain, > bending head backward [1], > exertion [1], on moving the face [1], from becoming heated by a fire or stove [2].
Eye
Lachrymation at night [2], on looking steadily [2; Seneg.]. Looking steadily, < white objects [1/1]. Winking when looking at bright objects [1]. Vision Dim, better at night than by day [1/1]. Teeth Sudden involuntary biting together of teeth [1/1]. Throat Choking < clothing [2], on lying down [1; Kali-bi.; Ol-j.]. Rectum Diarrhoea after acids [1], during climaxis [1; Lach.]. Electric-like shock in rectum before stool [1/1]. Urine Scanty, with amenorrhoea [1], with brain affection [2], during fever [2], before menses [2]. Female Pain, ovaries, after coition [2], from continence [2], before menses [2]. Chest Palpitation with scanty urine [1/1]. Limbs Numbness, upper limbs, holding anything in hands [2], > motion [2]. Sensation of swelling, soles of feet [1*], when walking [1*].
Dreams
Being a crazy man [1/1]. Physical exertion [1]. Flying [2]. Being a girl [1/1].
Generals
Lassitude in spring [1]. Suppression of sexual desire < [3]. Seeing or hearing of running water < [1]. * Repertory additions [Hughes]. Food Aversion: [2]: Warm drinks; water. Desire: [2]: Cold drinks; cold food; cold milk; sour. [1]: Green vegetables; meat fat; oysters; vinegar. Worse: [1]: Cold drinks; hot food; pickles; pungent; shellfish. Better: [2]: Milk. [1]: Cold drinks [during heat]; wine.

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