144 PERFECT SOCIETIES Of lNSECTi3. 



her jealousy, enlarge the breach that she has madef, 

 and drag forth the carcase of a queen just emerged from 

 the thin membrane that envelops the pupa. If the ob* 

 ject of lior attack be still in the pupa state, she is sti- 

 mulated by a less violent degree of rage, and contents 

 herself with making a breach in the cell : when this 

 happens, the death of the inclosed insect is equally cer- 

 tain, for the workers enlarge the breach, pull it out, 

 and it perishes^. If it happens, as it sometimes does, 

 that two queens are disclosed at the same time, the care 

 of Providence to prevent the hive from being wholly 

 despoiled of a governor is singularly manifested by a 

 remarkable trait in their instinct, which, when mutual 

 destruction seems inevitable, makes them separate from 

 each other as if panic-struck. " Two young queens," 

 says M. Huber, " left their cells one day, almost at the 

 same moment ; — as soon as they came within sight, they 

 darted upon each otlier, as if inflamed by the most un- 

 governable anger, and placed themselves in such an 

 attitude, that the antennae of each were held by the 

 jaw s of its antagonist : head was opposed to head, trunk 

 to trunk, abdomen to abdomen ; and they had only to 

 bend the extremity of the latter, and they would have 

 fallen reciprocal victims to each other's sting." But 

 nature having decreed that these duels should not be 

 fatal to both combatants, as soon as they were thus cir- 

 cumstanced a panic fear seemed to strike them, and 

 they disengaged themselves, and each fled away. After 

 a few minutes were expired, the attack was renewed 

 in a similar manner, with the same issue ; till at last 



* Jluber, i. 171— 



