INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 493 



But how vastly more manifold are the instincts of the 

 majority of insects ! It is not necessary to insist upon 

 those differences which take place in the same insect in 

 its different states, leading it to select one kind of food 

 in the larva, and another in the perfect state ; to defend 

 itself in one mode in the former, and in another in the 

 latter, &c. because, however remarkable these varia- 

 tions, they may be referred with great plausibility to 

 those striking changes in the organic structure of the 

 animal, which occur at the two periods of its existence. 

 It is to the number of instincts observable in the same 

 individual of many insects in their perfect state that I 

 now confine myself; and as the most striking example 

 of the whole I shall select the hive-bee, begging you to 

 bear in mind that I do not mean to include those exhi- 

 bited by the queen, the drones, or even those of the 

 workers, termed by Huber cirieres (wax makers) ; but 

 only to enumerate those presented by that portion of the 

 workers, termed by Huber nourrices or petites abeilles 

 (nurses), upon whom, as you have been before told a , 

 with the exception of making wax, laying the foundation 

 of the cells, and collecting honey for being stored, the 

 principal labours of the hive devolve. It will be these 

 individuals alone that I shall understand by the term 

 bees, under the present head : and though the other in- 

 habitants of the hive may occasionally concur in some 

 of their actions and labours, yet it is obvious that so 

 many as are those in which they distinctly take part, so 

 many instincts must we regard them as endowed with. 



To begin, then, with the formation of the colony : 

 By one instinct bees are directed to send out scouts pre- 

 * VOL. I. 487-. 



