PEEFECT SOCIETIES OF IXSECTS. 3C9 



of male eggs in the month of May, she oviposits in the royal cells when 

 about three or four lines in length, which the workers have in the mean- 

 time constructed. These, however, are not all furnished in one day, — a 

 most essential provision, in consequence of which the queens come forth 

 successively, in order to lead successive swarms. There is something sin- 

 gular in the manner in which the workers treat the young queens that are 

 to lead the swarms. After the cells are covered in, one of their first 

 employments is to remove here and there a portion of the wax from their 

 surface, so as to render it unequal; and immediately before the last meta- 

 morphosis takes place, the walls are so thin that all the motions of the in- 

 closed |)upa are perceptible through them. On the seventh day the part 

 covering the head and trunk of the young female, if I may so speak, is 

 almost entirely unvvaxed. This operation of the bees facilitates her exit, 

 and probably renders the evaporation of the superabundant fluids of the 

 body of the pupa more easy. 



You will conclude, perhaps, when all things are thus prepared for the 

 coming forth of the inclosed female, that she will quit her cell at the 

 regular period, which is seven days : — but yoLi would be mistaken. Were 

 she indeed permitted to pursue her own inclinations, this would be the 

 case : but here the bees show how much they are guided in their instinct 

 by circumstances and the wants of their society ; for did the new queen 

 leave her cell, slie would immediately attack and destroy those in the other 

 cells ; a proceeding which they permit, as I have before stated, when they 

 only want a successor to a defunct or a lost sovereign. As soon, there- 

 fore, as the workers perceive — which the transparency of the ceil permits 

 them to do — that the young queen has cut circularly through her cocoon, 

 they immediately solder the cleft up with some particles of wax, and so 

 keep her a prisoner against her will. Upon this, as if to complain of such 

 treatment, she emits a distinct sound, which excites no pity in the breasts 

 of her subjects, who detain her a prisoner two days longer than nature has 

 assigned for her confinement. In the interim, she sometimes thrusts her 

 tongue through the cleft she has made, drawing it in and out till she is 

 noticed by the workers, to make them understand that she is in want of 

 food. Upon perceiving this they give her honey, till her hunger being 

 satisfied she draws her tongue back — upon which they stop the orifice 

 with wax.^ 



You may think it perhaps extraordinary that the workers should thus 

 endeavour to retard the appearance of their young females beyond its 

 natural limit; but when I explain to you the reason for this seeming incon- 

 gruity of instinct, you will adore the wisdom that implanted it. Were a 

 queen permitted to leave her cell as soon as the natural term for it arrived, 

 it would reciuire some time to fit her for flight, and to lead forth a swarm ; 

 during which interval a troublesome task would be imposed upon the 

 workers, who must constantly detain her a prisoner to prevent iier from 

 destroying her rivals, which would require the labours and attention of a 

 much lai-ger number than are necessary to keep her confined to her cell. 

 On this account they never suffer her to come forth till she is perfectly fit 

 to take her flight. When at length she is permitted to do this, if she ap- 

 proaches the other royal cells the workers on guard seem greatly irritated 

 against her, and pull and bite and chase her away ; and she enjoys tran- 



> Huber, i. 256. 

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