PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 151 



Then the workers may be seen running over the combs, 

 and against each other ; impetuously rushing to the en- 

 trance and quitting the hive ; from thence they spread 

 themselves all around, they re-enter, and go out again 

 and again. The hum in the hive becomes very loud, 

 and increases the tumult, which lasts two or three hours, 

 rarely four or five : they then return and resume their 

 wonted care of the young; and if the hive be visited 

 twenty-four hours after the departure of the queen, it 

 will be seen that they have taken steps to repair their 

 loss by filling some of the cells with a larger quantity of 

 jelly than is the usual portion of common larvae ; which 

 however is intended, it seems, not for the food of the 

 inhabitant, but for a cushion to elevate it, since it is 

 found un consumed in the cell when the grub has descend- 

 ed into the pyramidal habitation afterwards prepared 

 fork 3 . 



If, after being removed, their old queen is restored to 

 the hive, they instantly recognise her, and pay her the 

 usual attentions; but if a strange one be introduced 

 within the first twelve hours after the old one is lost, she 

 is kept a close prisoner till she perishes : if twenty-four 

 hours, as I have before hinted, have expired since they 

 lost their queen, and you introduce a new one, at the 

 moment you set this stranger upon a comb, the workers 

 that are near her first touch her with their antennae, and 

 then pass their proboscis over all parts of her body : 

 place is next given to others, who salute her in the same 

 manner : all then beat their wings at the same time, 

 and range themselves in a circle round their new sove- 



' Huber, ii.396 



