56 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



sand or more in the course of the year, seems to be their 

 principal office. 



When the female is acknowledged as a mother, the 

 workers begin to pay her a homage very similar to that 

 which the bees render to their queen. All press round 

 her, offer her food, conduct her by her mandibles through 

 the difficult or steep passages of the formicary ; nay, 

 they sometimes even carry her about their city; — she is 

 then suspended upon their jaws, the ends of which are 

 crossed ; and, being coiled up like the tongue of a but- 

 terfly, she is packed so close as to incommode the car- 

 rier but little. When she sets her down, others sur- 

 round and caress her, one after another tapping her 

 on the head with their antennae. " In whatever apart- 

 ment," says Gould, "a queen condescends to be present, 

 she commands obedience and respect. An universal 

 gladness spreads itself through the whole cell, which is 

 expressed by particular acts of joy and exultation. They 

 have a particular way of skipping, leaping, and stand- 

 ing upon their hind-legs, and prancing with the others. 

 These frolics they make use of, both to congratulate 

 each other when they meet, and to show their regard 

 for the queen ; some of them gently walk over her, 

 others dance round her ; she is generally encircled with 

 a cluster of attendants, v/ho, if you separate them from 

 her, soon collect themselves into a body, and inclose her 

 in the midst ^." Nay, even if she dies, as if they were 

 unwilling to believe it, they continue sometimes for 

 months the same attentions to her, and treat her with 

 the same courtly formality as if she were alive, and they 

 will brush her and lick her incessantly^. 

 " Gould, p. 24 — . '' Compare Gould p. 25, with Huber 125,note(l). 



