310 INSECT MISCELLANIES. 



grubs not spinning complete cocoons, as is done by 

 the other bees, — leaving an opening through which 

 she can easily sting them to death.* 



^ In one of my hives,' says the elder Huber, 

 ' there were five or six royal cells, each including a 

 nymph. When the eldest was transformed, scarcely 

 ten minutes elapsed from the time of her leaving her 

 cradle, when she visited the other royal cells; and 

 furiously attacking the nearest, she succeeded by 

 dint of labour in opening the top, by tearing the' silk 

 of the cocoon with her teeth. Probably, however, 

 she found her efforts inadequate to effect her purpose, 

 for she abandoned this and attacked another, in which 

 she succeeded in making a wider breach. In this 

 aperture she thrust her abdomen, and, after several 

 abortive efforts, she at last succeeded in giving the 

 helpless nymph a mortal sting. Upon her quitting the 

 cell, a number of bees, who had previously been spec- 

 tators of her attack, began to enlarge the opening, and 

 drew forth the dead body of the embryo queen, just 

 disclosed from her envelope. 



* In the meanwhile, the queen was proceeding in 

 her work of assassination by attacking another royal 

 cell; but as the nymph in this was not so mature as 

 in the former, she did not sting it. It appears pro- 

 bable, indeed, that the immature nymphs inspire their 

 rivals with less animosity, though they do not, on that 

 account, escape destruction; for whenever a royal 

 cell has been, as this was, prematurely opened, the 

 workers always extract the contents, whether in the 

 state of grub, nymph, or queen, and accordingly, as 

 soon as she had left it, a party of workers enlarged 

 the breach she had begun, and dragged out the in- 

 cluded nymph. The queen was, in the meanwhile, 

 attacking a third cell; but as she laboured in a lan- 

 guid manner, being exhausted perhaps by her pre- 



* See Insect Transformations, p. 331. 



