202 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



Lesser tells us, that in 1 525, during the confusion occa- 

 sioned by a time of war, a mob of peasants assembling 

 in Hohnstein (in Thuringia) attempted to pillage the 

 house of the minister of Elende ; who having in vain 

 employed all his eloquence to dissuade them from their 

 design, ordered his domestics to fetch his bee-hives, and 

 throw them in the middle of this furious mob. The 

 effect was what might be expected ; they were immedi- 

 ately put to flight, and happy if they escaped unstung*. 



The anger of bees is not confined to man ; it is not 

 seldom excited against their own species- From ,what I 

 have said above respecting the black bees b and their fate, 

 it seems not improbable that, when the workers become 

 too old to be useful to the community, they are either 

 killed, or expelled the society. Reaumur, who observed 

 that the inhabitants of the same hive had often mortal 

 combats, was of opinion that this was their object in these 

 battles , which take place, he observes, in fine or warm 

 weather. On these occasions the bees are sometimes so 

 eager, that examining them with a lens does not part 

 them : their whole object is to pierce each other with 

 their sting, the stroke of which, if once it penetrates to 

 the muscles, is mortal. In these engagements the con- 

 queror is not always able to extricate this weapon, and 

 then both perish. The duration of the conflict is uncer- 

 tain; sometimes it lasts an hour, and at others is very 

 soon determined : and occasionally it happens that both 

 parties, fatigued and despairing of victory, give up the 

 contest and fly away. 



But the wars of bees are not confined to single combats; 

 general actions now and then take place between two 

 a Lesser, L. ii. 171. b See above, p. 126. c Reaum. v. 360-365. 



