PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 387. 



eggs of the small females. They pass the winter under ground, and, as 

 appears from an observation of M. P. Huber, in a particular apartment, 

 separate from the rest, and rendered warm by a carpeting of moss and 

 grass, but without any supply of food. Early in the spring (for they make 

 their first appearance as soon as the catkins of the sallows and willows are 

 in flower), like the female wasps, they lay the foundations of a new colony 

 without the assistance of any neuters, which all perish before the winter. 

 In some instances, however, if a conjecture of M. de la Billardiere be 

 correct, these creatures have an assistant assigned to them. He says, at 

 this season (the approach of winter) he found in tlie nest of Bombus Syl- 

 variim some old females and workers, whose wings were fastened together 

 to retain them in the nest by hindering them from flying ; these wings in 

 each individual were fastened together at the extremity, by means of some 

 very brown wax applied above and below. ^ This he conceives to be a 

 precaution taken by the other bees to oblige these individuals to remain in 

 the nest, and take care of the brood that was next year to renew the 

 population of the colony. I feel, however, great hesitation in admitting 

 this conjecture, founded upon an insulated and perhaps an accidental fact. 

 For, hi the first place, the young females that come forth in the autumn, 

 and not the old ones, are the founders of new colonies, and their instinct 

 directs them to fulfil the great laws of their nature without such compul- 

 sion ; and in the next, the workers are never known to survive the cold of 

 winter. 



The employment of a large female, besides the care of the young brood 

 before described, and the collecting of honey and pollen, is principally the 

 constructing of the cells in which her eggs are to be laid ; which M. P. 

 Huber seems to think, though they often assist in it, the workers are not 

 able to complete by themselves. So rapid is the female in this work, 

 that to make -a cell, fill it with pollen, commit one or two eggs to it, and 

 cover them in, requires only the short space of half an hour. Her family 

 at first consists only of workers, which are necessary to assist her in her 

 labors ; these appear in May and June ; but the males and females are 

 later, and sometimes are not produced before August and September.^ As 

 in the case of the hive-bee, the food of these several individuals differs ; 

 for the grubs that will turn to workers are fed with honey and pollen 

 mixed, while those that are destined to be males and females are supplied 

 with pure honey. 



The instinct of these larger females does not develop itself all at once : 

 for it is a remarkable fact, that when they are first hatched in the autumn, 

 not being in a condition to become mothers, they are no object of jealousy 

 to the small queens (as we shall soon see they are when engaged in ovi- 

 position), and are employed in the ordinary labors of the parent nest — 

 that is, they collect honey and pollen, and make wax ; but they do not 

 construct cells. The building instinct seems as it were in suspense, and 

 does not manifest itself till the spring ; when the maternal sentiment impels 



' Mimoires du Mwsium, &c. i. 55. 



^ P. Huber, in Linn. Trans, vi. 2C)'i. — This author says, however, in another place {ibid. 

 285.), that the male eggs are laid in the spring, at the same time with those that are to 

 produce workers. Perhaps by the former he means the male ofl'spring of the small females, 

 and by the latter those of the large ? 



