Parasites 



ing for a favourable opportunity to settle 

 their family at the expense of others. 



A heart-rending struggle, in truth, is that 

 which rules the insect world and in a measure 

 our own world too. No sooner has a worker, 

 by dint of exhausting labour, amassed a for- 

 tune for his children than the non-producers 

 come hastening up to contend for its possess- 

 ion. To one who amasses there are some- 

 times five, six or more bent upon his ruin; and 

 often it ends not merely in robbery but in 

 black murder. The worker's family, the ob- 

 ject of so much care, for whom that home 

 was built and those provisions stored, suc- 

 cumb, devoured by the Intruders, directly the 

 little bodies have acquired the soft roundness 

 of youth. Shut up In a cell that is closed on 

 every side, protected by Its silken covering, the 

 grub, once its victuals are consumed, sinks 

 into a profound slumber, during which the 

 organic changes needed for the future trans- 

 formation take place. For this new hatching, 

 which Is to turn a grub into a Bee, for this 

 general remodelling, the delicacy of which de- 

 mands absolute repose, all the precautions that 

 make for safety have been taken. 



These precautions will be foiled. The en- 

 191 



