PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 35 



millions get into a place of safety, fulfill the first law of 

 nature, and lay the foundation of a new community. At 

 this time they are seen running upon the ground, the 

 male after the female, and sometimes two chasing one, 

 and contending with great eagerness, regardless of the 

 innumerable dangers that surround them, who shall win 

 the prize. 



The workers, who are continually prowling about in 

 their covered ways, occasionally meet with one of these 

 airs, and, being impelled by their instinct, pay them 

 homage, and they are elected as it were to be king and 

 queen, or rather father and mother, of a new colony a : 

 all that are not so fortunate, inevitably perish ; and, con- 

 sidering the infinite host of their enemies, probably in 

 the course of the following day. The workers, as soon as 

 this election takes place, begin to inclose their new rulers 

 in a small chamber of clay, before described 5 , suited to 

 their size, the entrances to which are only large enough 

 to admit themselves and the neuters, but much too small 

 for the royal pair to pass through ; so that their state of 

 royalty is a state of confinement, and so continues during 

 the remainder of their existence. The impregnation of 

 the female is supposed to take place after this confine- 

 ment, and she soon begins to furnish the infant colony 

 with new inhabitants. The care of feeding her and her 

 male companion devolves upon the industrious larvae, 

 who supply them both with every thing that they want. 



a In this these animals vary from the usual instinct of the social 

 Hymenoptera, the ants, the wasps, and the humble-bees with whom 

 the females lay the first foundations of the colonies, unassisted by any 

 neuters ; but in the swarms of the hive-bee an election may perhaps 

 in some instances be said to take place. 



b VOL. I. Ed. 508. 



D 2 



