154 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



and confusion increase rapidly, till the whole popula- 

 tion is in a tumult. Then the workers may be seen 

 running over the combs, and against each other ; im- 

 petuously rushing to the entrance and quitting the 

 hive ; from thence they spread themselves all around, 

 they re-enter, and go out again and again. The hum 

 in the hive becomes very loud, and increases the tu- 

 mult, which lasts two or three hours, rarely four or 

 five: they then return and resume their wonted care 

 of the young; and if the hive be visited twenty four 

 hours after the departure of the queen, it will be seen 

 that they have taken steps to repair their loss by filling 

 some of the cells with a larger quantity of jelly than is 

 the usual portion of common larVcB ; which however is 

 intended, it seems, not for the food of the inhabitant, 

 but for a cushion to elevate it, since it is found uncon- 

 sumed in the cell when the grub is descended into the 

 pyramidal habitation afterwards prepared for it^. 



If, after being remo'ved, their old queen is restored 

 to the hive, they instantly recognise her, and pay her 

 the usual attentions : but if a strange one be introduced 

 within the first twelve hours after the old one is lost, 

 she is kept a close prisoner till she perishes : if twenty- 

 four hours, as I have befoi^e hinted, have expired since 

 they lost their queen, and you introduce a new one, at 

 the moment you set this stranger upon a comb, the 

 workers that are near her first touch her with their an- 

 tennas, and then pass their proboscis over all parts of 

 her body : place is next given to others, who salute 

 her in the same manner : — all then beat their wings at 

 the same time, and range themselves in a circle round 



Mlubcv, ii. 396— 



