150 PERFECT SOCIETIES OV INSECTS. 



llight. When at length she is permitted to do this, if 

 she approaches the other royal cells, the workers on 

 guard seem greatly irritated against her, and pull and 

 bite and chase her away ; and she enjoys tranquillity 

 only while she keeps at a distance from them. As her 

 instinct is constantly urging her to attack them, this 

 proceeding is frequently repeated. Sometimes stand- 

 ing in a particular and commanding attitude, she utters 

 that authoritative sound which so much affects the 

 bees ; they then all hang down their heads and remain 

 motionless; but as soon as it ceases, they resume their 

 opposition. At last slie becomes violently agitated, 

 and, communicating her agitation to others, the confu- 

 sion more and more increases, till a swarm leaves the 

 hive, which she either precedes or follows. In the 

 same manner the other young queens are treated while 

 there are swarms to go forth ; but when the hive is suf- 

 ficiently thinned, and it becomes troublesome to guard 

 them in the manner here described, they come forth 

 unnoticed, and tight unimpeded till one alone remains 

 to fill the deserted throne of the parent hive. — You see 

 here the reason why the eggs that produce these queens 

 are not laid at the same time, but after some interval, 

 that they may come forth successively. For did they 

 all make their appearance together, it would be a 

 much more laborious and difficult task to keep them 

 from destroying each other. 



When tlte bees thus delay the entrance of the young- 

 queens into their world, they invariably let out the 

 oldest first ; and they probably know their progress to 

 maturity by the emission of the sound lately mentioned. 

 The accurate Huber took the trouble to mark all the 



