IMPERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 25 



and as it were interwoven together. Thus also they 

 are disposed in their nests. Sometimes their families 

 divide into two bands, which never afterwards united 



I have nothing further of importance to communi- 

 cate to you on imperfect societies : in my next I shall 

 begin the most interesting subject that Entomology 

 offers ; a subject, to say the least, including as great 

 a portion both of instruction and amusement as any 

 branch of Natural History affords; — I mean those 

 perfect associations which have for their great object 

 the multiplication of the species, and the education, if 

 such a term may be here employed, of the young. This 

 is too fertile a theme to be confined to a single letter, 



but must occupy several. 



I am, &c. 



* Reaumur, ii. 180. 



