PERFECT SOCIETIES OP INSECTS. 123 



cells ! ! ! Another writer, Mr. Huish, whose work has 

 just made its appearance, and whose presumption can 

 only be equalled by his ignorance % denies most of the 

 modern discoveries, and asserts that the queen always 

 remains a virgin ! ! Enough, however, upon this sub- 

 ject. I sliall now endeavour to lay before you the best 

 authenticated facts in the history of these animals; but 

 you must not expect an account of them complete in 

 all its parts ; for, much as we know. Bonnet's observa- 

 tion Avill still hold good : " The more I am ens^aged in 

 making- fresh observations upon bees, the more stead- 

 fast is my conviction, that the time is not yet arrived 

 in which we can draw satisfactory conclusions with re- 

 spect to their policy. It is only by varying- and com- 

 bining experiments in a thousand ways, and by placing- 

 these industrious flies in circumstances more or less re- 

 moved from their ordinary state, that we can hope to 

 ascertain the right direction of their instinct, and the 

 true principles of their government''. 



What I have further to say concerning these admi- 

 rable creatures, will be principally taken from the two 

 authors who have given the clearest and most satisfac- 

 tory account of them, Reaumur and the elder Huber ; 

 though I shall add from other sources such additional 

 observations as may serve better to elucidate their 

 history. 



The society of a hive of bees, besides the young 



* The foUowino; passage, in which hp speaks of Ihe Sphinx Atropos as 

 belonging to Linne's three lepidopterous genera, will bufficiently justify 

 this assertion. The Death- headed Sphinx {Sphinx Airopos) is a great 

 Inttterflt/, and belongs also to the genus Phalencc, p. 126 !! ! 



" (F.uvt; X. 194— 



