PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. liS 



tliey usually manifest to their lawful ruler; the anxiety 

 concerning her which they often exhibit : and the dis- 

 trust which for a time (as we shall see hereafter) they 

 usually show towards strange ones even when deprived 

 of their own ; one would expect that, rather than permit 

 such a perilous combat, they would unite in the defence 

 of their sovereign, and cause the interloper to perish 

 under the stroke of their fatal stings. But no ; the con- 

 test for empire must be between the rival candidates : no 

 worker must interfere in any other way than that wliich 

 I have described ; no contending armies must fight the 

 battles of their sovereigns, for the law of succession seems 

 to be " detur fortiori^ But to return to my narrative. 

 The legitimate queen appearing inclined to move to- 

 wards that part of the comb on which her rival was sta- 

 tioned, the bees immediately began to retire from the 

 space that intervened between them, so that there was 

 soon a clear arena for the combat. When they could 

 discern each other, the rightful queen rushing furiously 

 upon the pretender, seized her with her jaws near the 

 root of the wings, and, after fixing her without power of 

 motion against the comb, with one stroke of her sting 

 dispatched her. If ever-so-many queens are introduced 

 into a hive, all but one will perish, and that one will have 

 won the throne by her own unassisted valour and strength. 

 Sometimes a strange queen attempts of herself to en- 

 ter a hive : in this case the workers, who are upon the 

 watch and who examine every thing that presents itself, 

 immediately seize her with their jaws by the legs or wings, 

 and hem her in so straitly with a clustered circle of 

 guards, turning their heads on all sides towards her, that 

 it is impossible for her to penetrate within. If they retain 



