138 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



cell to be always perpendicular to the horizon, and that 

 of a vertical one to be parallel with it. 



A most remarkable difference, as I lately observed, 

 takes place in spinning their cocoons, — the grubs of 

 workers and drones spinning complete cocoons, while 

 those that are spun by the females are incomplete, or 

 open at the lower end, and covering only the head and 

 trunk and the first segment of the abdomen. This vari- 

 ation is probably occasioned by the different forms of the 

 cells; for, if a female larva be placed in a worker's cell, 

 it will spin a complete cocoon ; and, vice versa, if a 

 worker larva be placed in a royal cell, its cocoon will be 

 incomplete *. No provision of the Great Author of na- 

 ture is in vain. In the present instance, the fact which 

 we are considering is of great importance to the bees ; 

 for, were the females wholly covered by the thick tex- 

 ture of a cocoon, their destruction by their rival com- 

 petitors for the throne could not so readily be accom- 

 plished ; they either would not be able to reach them 

 with their stings, or the stings might be detained by their 

 barbs in the meshes of the cocoon, so that they would 

 not be able to disengage them. On the use of this in- 

 stinctive and murderous hatred of their rivals I shall 

 soon enlarge. 



When our young prisoners are ready to emerge, they 

 do not, like the ants, require the assistance of the 

 workers, but themselves eat through the cocoon and the 

 cell that incloses it. By a wise provision, which pre- 

 vents the injury or destruction of a cell, they generally 

 make their way through the cover or lid with which the 



' Huber, i. 224. 



