310 INSECT MISCELLANIES. 



grubs not spinning complete cocoons, ss is done 

 by the other bees, — leaving an opening through 

 which she can easily sting them to death *. 



"In one of my hives," says the elder Huber, 

 " there were five or six royal cells, each including a 

 nymph. When the eldest was transformed, scarcely 

 ten minutes elapsed from the time of her leaving her 

 cradle, when she visited the other royal cells ; and 

 furiously attacking the nearest, she succeeded by 

 dint of labour in opening the top, by tearing the 

 silk of the cocoon with her teeth. Probably, how- 

 ever, she found her efforts inadequate to effect her 

 purpose, for she abandoned this and attacked another, 

 in which she succeeded in making a wider breach. 

 In this aperture she thrust her abdomen, and, after 

 several abortive efforts, she at last succeeded in giv- 

 ing the helpless nymph a mortal stingo Upon her 

 quitting the cell, a numberof bees, who had previously 

 been spectators of her attack, began to enlarge the 

 opening, and drew forth the dead body of the em- 

 bryo queen, just disclosed from iier envelope. 



" In the meanwhile, the queen was proceeding in 

 her work of assassination by attacking another royal 

 cell ; but as the nymph in this was not so mature as 

 in the former, she did not sting it. It appears pro- 

 bable, indeed, that the immature nymphs inspire their 

 rivals with less animosity, though they do not, on that 

 account, escape destruction ; for whenever a royal 

 cell has been, as this was, prematurely opened, the 

 workers always extract the contents, whether in the 

 state of grub, nymph, or queen, and accordingly, as 

 soon as she had left it, a party of workers enlarged 

 the breach she had begun, and dragged out the in- 

 cluded nymph. The queen w^as, in the meanwhile, 

 attacking a third cell j but as she laboured in a lan- 

 guid manner, being exhausted perhaps by her pre- 

 * See Insect Transformations, p. 331, 



