PKltFKCT SOCIETIES or INSECTS. 129 



Common workers in tlie same way; and she found in 

 till tliat she examined, what had escaped Swammerdam, 

 perfect though sterile ovaries^. It is worth inquiry^ 

 though Mr. Hubcr gives no hint of this kind, whether 

 these were Jiot in fact superannuated bees, that could 

 no longer take part in the labours of the hive; '^Phor- 

 ley remarks, which confirms this idea, that, if you 

 closely observe a hive of bees in July, you may per- 

 ceive many amongst them of a dark colour, with wings 

 rent and torn; but that in September not one of them 

 is to be seen''. Tlubei* does not say whether the wings 

 of the bees in question were lacerated ; but in super- 

 annuated insects the hair is often rubbed off the body, 

 which gives them a darker hue than that of more recent 

 individuals of the same species. Should this conjec- 

 ture turn out true, their banishment and destruction of 

 the seniors of the hive would certainly not show our 

 little creatures in a very amiable point of view. Yet 

 it seems the law of their nature to rid their community 

 of all supernumerary and useless members, as is evi- 

 dent from their destruction of the drones after their 

 work is done. 



It is not often that insects have been weighed ; but 

 Reaumur's curiosity was excited to know the weight 

 of bees ; and he found that 336 weighed an ounce, and 

 5376 a pound. According to John Hunter, an ale-house 

 pint contains 2160 workers. 



I have described to you the persons of the different 

 individuals that compose the society of the bee-hive 

 more in detail than 1 should otherwise have done, iu 

 order that you maybe the better able to form a judge- 



* Huber, ii. 425— "' Thoiloy, On Bees, 111). 



VOL. II. K 



