PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 159 



you with the history of ants ^ ; but the object with them 

 seems to be merely a change of station for one more 

 convenient or less exposed to injury, and not to di- 

 minish a superabundant population. Whereas in the 

 societies of the hive-bee, the latter is the general cause of 

 emigrations, which invariably take place every year, it 

 their numbers require it ; if not, when the male eggs 

 are laid, no royal cells are constructed, and no swarm 

 is led forth. What might be the case with ants, were 

 they confined to hives, we cannot say. Formicaries in 

 general are capable of indefinite enlargement, there- 

 fore want of room does not cause emigration ; — but bees 

 being confined to a given space, which they possess not 

 the means of enlarging, — -to avoid the ill effects result- 

 ing from being too much crowded, when their popula- 

 tion exceeds a certain limit, they must necessarily emi- 

 grate. Sometimes — for instance, when wasps have got 

 into a hive — the bees will leave it, in order to fly from 

 an inconvenience or enemy which they cannot otherwise 

 avoid ; but it does not very often happen that they 

 wholly desert a hive. 



Apiarists tell us that, in this country, the best season 

 for swarming is from the middle of May to the middle 

 of June; but swarms sometimes occur so early as the 

 beginning of April, and as late as the middle of Au- 

 gust''. The first swarm, as I before observed, is led 

 by the reigning queen, and takes place when she is so 

 much reduced in size, in consequence of the number of 

 eggs she has laid, (for previously to oviposition her gra- 

 vid body is so heavy that she can scarcely drag it along,) 



* See above, p. 57. '' Keys On Bees, 76. 



