14-8 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



The accurate Huber took the trouble to mark all the 

 royal cells in a hive as soon as the workers had covered 

 them in, and he found that they were all liberated ac- 

 cording to seniority. Those first covered first emit the 

 sound, and so on successively ; whence he conjectures 

 that this is the sign by which the workers discover their 

 age. As their captivity, however, is sometimes prolong- 

 ed to eight or ten days, this circumstance in that time 

 may be forgotten. In this case he supposes that their 

 tones grow stronger as they grow older, by which the 

 workers may be enabled to distinguish them. It is re- 

 markable that no guard is placed round the mute queens 

 bred according to the Lusatian method, which, when 

 the time for their appearance is come, are not detained 

 in captivity a single moment ; but, as you have heard, 

 are left to fight, conquer, or die ^. 



You must not think, however, from what I have been 

 saying, that the old queen never destroys the young 

 ones previously to her leading forth the earliest swarm. 

 She is allowed the most uncontrolled liberty of action ; 

 and if she chooses to approach and destroy the royal cells, 

 her subjects do not oppose her. It sometimes happens, 

 when unfavourable weather retards the first swarm, that 

 all the royal progeny perishes by the sting of their mo- 

 ther, and then no swarm takes place. It is to be observ- 

 ed that she never attacks a royal cell till its inhabitant is 

 ready to assume the pupa, therefore much will depend 

 upon their age. When they arrive at this state, her 

 horror of these cells, and aversion to them, are extreme : 

 she attacks, perhaps, and destroys several; but finding 

 it too laborious, for they are often numerous, to destroy 



» Huber, i. 286. 



