PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 139 



workers had shut it up ; though sometimes, but not 

 often, a female will break through the side of her prison. 

 Having thus shown you our little chemists in their 

 preparatory states, and carried you from the egg to the 

 cocoon, both of which may be deemed a kind of cradle, 

 in which they are nursed to fit them for two very dif- 

 ferent conditions of existence, I must now introduce you 

 to a scene more interesting and diversified ; in which all 

 their wonderful instincts are displayed in full action, and 

 we see them exceed some of the most vaunted products 

 of human wisdom, art, and skill. 



The queen-mother here demands our first attention, as 

 the personage upon whom, when established in her regal 

 dignity, the welfare and happiness of the apiarian com- 

 munity altogether depend. I shall begin my history 

 with the events that befall her on her quitting the royal 

 cradle and appearing in the perfect state. And here 

 you will find that the first moments of her life, prior to 

 her election to lead a swarm or fill a vacant throne, are 

 moments of the greatest uneasiness and vexation, if not 

 of extreme peril and vindictive and mortal warfare. The 

 Homeric maxim, that " the government of many is not 

 good a ," is fully adopted and rigorously adhered to in 

 these societies. The jealous Semiramis of the hive will 

 bear no rival near her throne. There are usually not 

 less than sixteen, and sometimes not less than twenty, 

 royal cells in the same nest ; you may therefore conceive 

 what a sacrifice is made when one only is suffered to live 

 and to reign. But here a distinction obtains which should 

 not be overlooked : in some instances a single queen 



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