346 STATES OF INSECTS. (Jmago.) 
important office. Huber affirms, that he had certain 
proofs that she was engaged for two years in laying eggs, 
all impregnated by a single sexual union?; and in the 
females of most insects that live in society, several months 
are required to mature the last eggs that are in the 
ovary. There is one tribe of insects, however, the fe- 
males of which are affirmed to survive this operation : 
I mean Dorthesia ; after which they even moult, though 
not so often as before °. 
I formerly related to you the singular fact, that the 
drones in a beehive at a certain period are without mercy 
slaughtered by the workers®. A fact the reverse of this 
is recorded by Morier with respect to the locusts: he 
affirms that the female, when she has done laying her 
eggs, is surrounded and killed by the males.” He says 
that he never himself witnessed this extraordinary cir- 
cumstance; but that he heard it from such authority 
that he gave full credit to it’. Itis a fact, however, that 
seems to require further evidence to entitle it to such cre- 
dit. These are instances in which, by a law of nature, 
the life of these insects is shortened by violence. It does 
not appear to have been ascertained how long those 
drones live that, under particular circumstances, as stated 
in a former letter *, are exempted from the usual slaugh- 
ter. 
I am, &c. 
@ Huber i. 106. 
b N. Dict. d' Hist. Nat. ix. 553. © Vor. If. 171—. 
4 Morier’s Second Journey through Persia, 100. 
eWors uy 172: 
