140 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



only is wanted to govern her native hive ; in others se- 

 veral are necessary to lead the swarms. In the first case, 

 inevitable death is the lot of all but one ; in the other, as 

 many as are wanted are preserved from destruction by 

 the precautions taken on that occasion, under the direc- 

 tion of an all- wise Providence, by the workers. 



I shall enlarge a little on each of these cases. In the 

 formicary, as we have se,en, rival queens live together 

 very harmoniously without molesting each other: but 

 there is that instinctive jealousy in a queen bee, that no 

 sooner does she discover the existence of another in the 

 hive, than she is put into a state of the most extreme agi- 

 tation, and is not easy until she has attacked and de- 

 stroyed her. 



Naturalists had observed, that when there were two 

 queens in the same hive, one of them soon perished ; but 

 some supposed (this was the opinion of Schirach and 

 Riem) that the workers destroyed the supernumeraries. 

 Reaumur, however, conjectured that these queens attack- 

 ed each other ; and his conjecture has been since con- 

 firmed by the actual observation of other naturalists. 

 Blassiere, the translator of Schirach, tells us, as what he 

 had himself witnessed, that the strongest queen kills her 

 rival with her sting ; and the same is asserted by Huber, 

 whose opportunities of observation were greater than 

 those of any of his precursors a . 



The queen that is first liberated from her confinement, 

 and has assumed the perfect or imago state (it is to be 

 supposed that the author is here speaking of a hive which 

 has lost the old queen), soon after this event goes to visit 

 the royal cells that are still inhabited. She darts with 

 a Schirach, 209, note *. Huber, i. 170- . 



