114 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



them. He says, at this season (the approach of winter) 

 he found in the nest of Bomhus Sylvarum some old fe- 

 males and workers, whose wings were fastened together 

 to retain them in the nest by hindering them from fly- 

 ing; these wings in each individual were fastened to- 

 gether 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 tliese in- 

 dividuals 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 con- 

 jecture, founded upon an insulated and perhaps an acci- , 

 dental fact. For, in the first place, the young females 

 that come forth in tlie autumn, and not the old ones, 

 are the founders of new colonies ; and their instinct di- 

 rects them to fulfill the great laws of their nature without 

 such compulsion ; 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 construction of the 

 cells in which her eggs are to be laid ; which M. P. Ru- 

 ber 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 labours ; these appear in 

 May and June : but the males and females are later, and 



" Memoircs du Museum, &c. i, 55. 



