The Life of the Caterpillar 



on the same tiles and building a monumental 

 edifice at which all the mothers work. Is this 

 really a community? Not at all. It is a city 

 in which the inhabitants have neighbours, not 

 collaborators. Each mother kneads her pots 

 of honey; each amasses a dowry for her off- 

 spring and nothing but a dowry for her off- 

 spring; each wears herself out for her family 

 and only for her family. Oh, it would be a 

 serious business if some one merely came and 

 alighted on the brim of a cell that did not 

 belong to her; the mistress of the house would 

 give her to understand, by means of a sound 

 drubbing, that manners such as those are not 

 to be endured ! She would have to skedaddle 

 very quickly, unless she wanted a fight. The 

 rights of property are sacred here. 



Even the much more social Hive-bee is no 

 exception to the rule of maternal egoism. To 

 each hive one mother. If there be two, civil 

 war breaks out and one of them perishes by 

 the other's dagger or else quits the country, 

 followed by a part of the swarm. Although 

 virtually fit to lay eggs, the other Bees, to 

 the number of some twenty thousand, re- 

 nounce maternity and vow themselves to celi- 

 bacy in order to bring up the prodigious 

 52 



