PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 171 



work upon the combs, that they were stung to death by 

 the workers. To ascertain how their death was occa- 

 sioned, he caused a table to be glazed, on which he 

 placed six hives, and under this table he employed the 

 patient and indefatigable Burnens, who was to him in- 

 stead of eyes, to watch their proceedings. On the 

 fourth of July this accurate observer saw the massacre 

 going on in all the hives at the same time, and attended 

 by the same circumstances. The table was crowded 

 with workers, who, apparently in great rage, darted 

 upon the drones as soon as they arrived at the bottom 

 of the hive seizing them by their antennae, their legs, and 

 their wings ; and killing them by violent strokes of their 

 sting, which they generally inserted between the seg- 

 ments of the abdomen. The moment this fearful wea- 

 pon entered their body, the poor helpless creatures ex- 

 panded their wings and expired. After this, as if fear- 

 ful that they were not sufficiently dispatched, the bees 

 repeated their strokes, so that they often found it diffi- 

 cult to extricate their sting. On the following day they 

 were equally busy in the work of slaughter ; but their 

 fury, their own having perished, was chiefly vented upon 

 those drones, which, after having escaped from the 

 neighbouring hives, had sought refuge with them. Not 

 content with destroying those that were in the perfect 

 state, they attacked also such male pupse as were left 

 in their cells; and then dragging them forth, sucked 

 the fluid from their bodies and cast them out of the 

 hive^. 



But though in hives containing a queen perfectly fer- 



' Huber, i. 195. 



