PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 14-5 



which invariably takes place that the first swarm is 

 conducted by this queen, and not by a newly disclosed 

 one, as Reaumur and others have supposed. Previously 

 to her departure, after her great laying of male eggs in 

 the month of May, she oviposits in the royal cells when 

 about three or four lines in length, which the workers 

 have in the mean time constructed. These however are 

 not all furnished in one day, a most essential provision, 

 in consequence of which the queens come forth succes- 

 sively, in order to lead successive swarms. There is 

 something singular in the manner in which the workers 

 treat the young queens that are to lead the swarms. 

 After the cells are covered in, one of their first employ- 

 ments is to remove here and there a portion of the wax 

 from their surface, so as to render it unequal; and 

 immediately before the last metamorphosis takes place, 

 the walls are so thin that all the motions of the inclosed 

 pupa are perceptible through them. On the seventh 

 clay the part covering the head and trunk of the young 

 female, if I may so speak, is almost entirely unwaxed. 

 This operation of the bees facilitates her exit, and pro- 

 bably renders the evaporation of the superabundant 

 fluids of the body of the pupa more easy. 



You will conclude, perhaps, when all things are thus 

 prepared for the coming forth of the inclosed female, 

 that she will quit her cell at the regular period, which is 

 seven days : but you would be mistaken. Were she 

 indeed permitted to pursue her own inclinations, this 

 would be the case : but here the bees show how much 

 they are guided in their instinct by circumstances and 

 the wants of their society ; for did the new queen leave 

 her cell, she would immediately attack and destroy those 



VOL. II. L 



