PKRFRCT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. l4l 



cell, it will spin a complete cocoon ; and, zke versa, if 

 a worker larva be placed in a royal cell its cocoon will 

 be incomplete^. No provision of the Great Author 

 of nature is in vain. In the present instance, the fact 

 which Ave are considering is of great importance to the 

 bees; for, were thefemales wholly covered by the thick 

 texture of a cocoon, their destruction by their rival 

 competitors for the throne could not so readily be ac- 

 complished ; they either v/ould not be able to reach 

 them with their stings, or the stings might be detained 

 by their barbs in the meshes of the cocoon, so that they 

 would not be able to disengage them. On the use of 

 this instinctive and murderous hatred of their rivals I 

 shall soon enlarge. 



When our young prisoners are ready to emerge, 

 they do not, like the ants, require the assistance of the 

 workers, but themselves eat through the cocoon and 

 the cell that incloses it. By a wise provision, which 

 prevents the injury or destruction of a cell, they gene- 

 rally make their way through the cover or lid with 

 which the workers had shut it up ; though sometimes, 

 but not often, a female will break through the side of 

 her prison *•. 



Having thus shown you our little chemists in their 

 preparatory states, and carried you from the egg to 

 the cocoon, both of which may be deemed a kind of 

 cradle, in which they are nursed to fit them for tw0 

 very different conditions of existence, I must now in- 

 troduce you to a scene more interesting and diversi- 

 fied ; in which all their wonderful instincts are di- 

 splayed in full action, and we see them exceed some of 



• Huber, i. ^'ii. " Reawm. v. 598, 



