A NEST IN MY STUDY 241 



July 21. A sad change came over the colony 

 to-day. I noticed some of the workers butting one 

 another this morning. This evening these quarrel- 

 some spirits had multiplied and had thrown the 

 orderly and contented colony into confusion and 

 anarchy. They rushed madly over the comb, 

 attacking and pushing one another with great 

 vehemence, and half their comrades were on the 

 floor idle and drowsy. In the hope of restoring 

 order I removed five of the worst, but still the re- 

 maining ones could not agree. Looking at the 

 queen I noticed that she was taking no interest in 

 anything around her but had fallen into a kind of 

 stupor. When I tried to arouse her she trembled, 

 and she would not take food. Evidently she was 

 ailing. A worker seized one of her hind legs in her 

 jaws and began pulling it, another tugged at one of 

 her antennae, and a third caught hold of her tongue 

 and tried to drag her along by it. She did not 

 seem to mind this rough treatment, but slowly 

 cleaned her antenna with her foreleg when the 

 worker let it go. Probably she was only half con- 

 scious. Evidently the object of the workers in 

 seizing her was not to attack her but to remove 

 her ; they seemed to have decided that she was 

 useless and going to die. 



The sickness of the queen was, in fact, the cause 

 of the quarrelling. In every nest under my ob- 

 servation that has had the misfortune to lose its 

 queen, including one of latreillellus and another of 

 muscorum, the workers quarrelled in the same way, 



