PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 133 



sued with the most vindictive fury till it had destroyed 

 them ! Further, that these factitious queens (I mean 

 those that the bees elect from amongst worker 

 brood, and educate to supply the place of a lost one 

 in the manner just described) shall differ remarkably 

 from the natural queens, (or those that have been 

 wholly educated in a royal cell,) in being- altogether 

 mute * — All this, you will think, at first sight, so impro- 

 bable, and next to impossible, that you will require the 

 strongest and most irrefragable evidence before you 

 will believe it. 



In spite of all these powerful probabilities to the 

 contrary, this astonishing and seemingly incredible 

 fact rests upon strong foundations, and is established 

 by experiments made at different times, by different 

 persons of the highest credit, in different parts of Eu- 

 rope. The first who brought it before the public (as 

 I lately observed) was M. Schirach, secretary of an 

 Apiarian Society established at Little Bautzen in 

 Upper Lusatia. He observed, that bees when shut up 

 with a portion of comb, containing only worker brood, 

 would soon erect royal cells, and thus obtain queens : 

 — the experiment was frequently repeated, and there* 

 suit was almost uniformly the same. In one instance 

 he tried it with a single cell, and it succeeded''. This 

 curious fact was communicated to the celebrated Bon- 

 net, who, though he hesitated long before he admitted 

 it, was at length fully convinced. M.Wjihelmi (Sclii- 

 iach's brother-in-law), though at first he accounted for 

 the fact upon other principles, and objected stroi^gly 

 to the doctrine in question, induced by the powerful 



» llubor, !. -2S)2. " Boiuict, .\. 



