342 STATES OF INSECTS. (Imago.) 
kind does take place amongst them. In general the 
males are more fitted for locomotion and more Jocomo- 
tive; and the females, on the contrary, are necessarily 
more stationary. And this for an obvious reason :—the 
law is, that the male shall seek the female, and therefore 
he is peculiarly gifted for this purpose, both in his or- 
gans of sensation and motion: while his partner in many 
cases has very simple antenne, he has very complex 
ones; and while she has either no wings or only rudi- 
ments of them, he is amply provided with them. Again: 
amongst the insects that suck the blood of man or beast, 
such as the gnat (Cwle2) or horse-flies (Tabanide@), it is 
the female alone that is bloodthirsty, the males content- 
ing themselves with the nectar of flowers*. But the dif- 
ference of character in the sexes is most conspicuous, at 
least it has been more noticed, in those that live in so- 
cieties, and is quite the reverse of what takes place in 
the human species. While the females and workers 
(which are now generally considered as sterile females, 
in which the ovaries are not developed) are laborious 
and active, diligent and skilful, wise and prudent, cou- 
rageous and warlike ;—the males, on the contrary, take 
no part in promoting the common weal, except merely a 
sexual one. Though till a certain period they are sup- 
ported at the expense of the community, they do not 
share in its labours, either in collecting and forming the 
public stores, or in feeding and attending the young. 
They are idle, cowardly, and inactive; have neither art 
nor skill of any kind, and are unprovided with the usual 
offensive weapons of their species. ‘These observations 
in their full force apply particularly to the hive-bee, and 
* N. Dict. d Hist. Nat. xxxii. 443, 
