366 INSECTS THAT LIVE 
For what purpose has Nature required 
from them this sacrifice ? Did she wish, 
in this way, to render them more se- 
dentary? Or was it not rather in order 
to prevent their return to the natal ant- 
hill? ‘This latter conjecture seems to 
me the most plausible. What would 
have happened did they possess the 
power of returning to their original fa- 
mily ? That the ant-hills would not have 
been scattered, that they would have 
constituted but one immense babitation, 
which would soon have exhausted the 
resources of its neighbourhood. This 
inconvenience would have existed with 
bees, who do not reject their wings, had 
not that wisdom which regulates the 
universe, guarded against it, by inspiring 
the queens with mutual aversion and in- 
surmountable dread of each other; so 
much so, that the oldest quits her abode, 
and leads off with her a part of her sub- 
jects, to found a new colony. 
Humble-bees and wasps have not the 
power of re-assembling for the purpose of 
= 
