340 THE INSECT WORLD. 



look for each other, and fight, and the queen that comes victorious 

 out of this duel to the death reigns peaceably over the people she has 

 won for herself. If, in the tumult which precedes the swarming, 

 a female escapes from her prison, it may happen that she is carried 

 away in the swarm. In this case the deserters divide into two 

 separate bands, but the weakest in numbers are not long in breaking 

 up, the deserters going to swell the principal swarm. At last all the 

 troop is reunited, and it then contains two queens. As long as the 

 swarm remains fixed on its branch, all passes quietly, in spite of 

 the presence of a second queen. But as soon as it has become 

 domiciled, the affair becomes serious ; a duel to the death takes 

 place between the two aspirants to the command. Two queens 

 cannot exist in the same hive. One of them is de irop and must 

 be got rid of. 



Francis Huber was the first to describe these duels between the 

 queens. We quote an interesting account which he has left us of a 

 combat which he watched on the 12th of May, 1790 : — " Two young 

 queens," says he, " came out on that day from the cells almost at the 

 same moment, in one of our smallest hives. As soon as they saw 

 each other they dashed one against the other with every appearance 

 of the greatest rage, and put themselves in such a position that each 

 one had its antennae seized between the teeth of its rival ; the head, 

 the thorax, and abdomen of the one were opposite to the head, 

 the thorax, and abdomen of the other ; they had only to bend round 

 the posterior extremity of their bodies, and they would reciprocally 

 have stabbed each other with their darts, and both engaged in the 

 combat would have been killed. But it seems as if Nature would not 

 allow this duel to end by the death of both of the combatants. One 

 would say that she had ordained that those queens, finding themselves 

 in this position (that is to say, face to face and abdomen to abdomen), 

 should retreat that very instant with fhe greatest precipitation. And 

 so, as soon as the two rivals felt that their posterior parts were about 

 to meet, they left go of each other, and each one ran away in an 



opposite direction A few minutes after they had 



separated from each other their fear ceased, and they recommenced 

 looking for each other. Very soon they perceived the object of theii 

 search, and we saw them running one against the other. They 

 seized each other, as at the first, and put themselves in exactly the 

 same position. The result was the same ; as soon as their abdomens 

 approached each other they only thought of getting free, and ran 

 away. The working bees were very much agitated during the whole 

 of this time, and their tumult seemed to increase when the twc 



