142 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



the nioiil vaunted products of human wisdom, art, and 

 skill. 



The queen-mother here demands our first attention, 

 as the personage upon whom, when established in her 

 regal dignity, the welfare and happiness of the apiarian 

 community altogether depend. 1 shall begin my his- 

 tory with the events that befall heron her quitting- the 

 royal cradle, and appearing- in the perfect state. And 

 here you will find that the first moments of her life, 

 prior to her election to lead a swarm or fill a vacant 

 throne, are moments of the greatest uneasiness and 

 vexation, if not of extreme peril and vindictive and 

 mortal warfare. The Homeric maxim, that " The go- 

 vernment of many is not good^," is fully adopted and 

 rigorously adhered to in these societies. The jealous 

 Semrramis of the hive will bear no rival near her 

 throne. There are usually not less than sixteen, 

 and sometimes not less than twenty, royal cells in the 

 same nest ; you may therefore conceive what a sacri- 

 fice is made when one only is suffered to live and to 

 reign. But here a distinction obtains w hich should not 

 be overlooked : in some instances a single queen only 

 is wanted to govern her native hive ; in others several 

 are necessary to lead the swarms. In the first case in^ 

 evitable death is the lot of all but one; in the other, as 

 many as are wanted are preserved from destruction by 

 the precautions taken on that occasion, under the di- 

 rection of an all-wise Providence, by the workers. 



I shall enlarge a little on each of these cases. In 

 the formicary, as we have seen, rival queens live to- 



