18 IMPERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS, 



laid their eggs in separate cells or houses in the earth ; 

 so that there is little or no analogy between the socie- 

 ties of locusts and those of bees and ants; and this 

 pretended sultan is something quite different from the 

 queen-beo or the female ants. It follows, therefore, that 

 as the locusts liave no common mother, like the bees, 

 to lead their swarms, there is no one that nature, by a 

 different organization and ampler dimensions, and a 

 more august form, has destined to this high office. The 

 only question remaining is, whether one be elected 

 from the rest by common consent as their leader, or 

 whether their instinct impels them to follow the first 

 that takes flight or alights. This last is the learned 

 Bochart's opinion, and seems much the most reason- 

 able^. The absurdity of the other supposition, that an 

 election is made, will appear from such queries as these, 

 at which you may smile — Who are the electors ? Are 

 the myriads of millions all consulted, or is the elective 

 franchise confined to a few ? Who holds the courts 

 and takes the votes ? Who casts them up and declares 

 the result? When is the election made? — The larvae 

 appear to be as much under government as the perfect 

 insect. — Is the monarch then chosen by his peers Avhen 

 they first leave the egg and emerge from their subter- 

 ranean caverns ? or have larva, pupa, and imago each 

 their separate king? The account given us in Scrip- 

 ture is certainly much the most probable, that the lo- 

 custs have no king, though they observe as much order 

 and regularity in their movements as if they were un- 

 der military discipline, and had a ruler over them''. 

 Some species of ants, as we learn from the admirable 



■ Bochart, Hierozoic, ubi supra. * Proverbs xax. 27. 



