'145 



ve ; lie is almost in continual ir.otion : the F<N 

 -inale, on the contrary, moves but seldom, and that 

 J;eavilv: she sometimes span-Is the-greatest part of her 

 life in the most perfect inactivity, inline, The male is 

 -an insect prnperly so caRed\ his whole .body is intersect- 

 ed by iucis'ums that are very conspicuous: the female 

 ,is a spherical mass, fixed to a branch, that one would 

 -be apt to -take for an excrescence or gall-nut of this 

 .branch. Yon v/iil imagine that I am speaking of gall- 

 insects, whose name -so well explains their deceitful ap- 

 pearances; they are found in great numbers on the 

 -branches of many trees and shrubs.; they are greatly 

 diversified ; but always affect: the -form of gall-nuts, 

 re or less round : they imbibe the jnice of the tree 

 by the assistance of a. little pump, which they keep fixed 

 to the bark. They jay some thousands of eggs, which 

 are piled up under the inotli^r^ belly, as they issue 

 -from it: when the whole number is laid, the gall-insect 

 dies, and its carcase remains fastened to the branch: 

 this is only a coil full of eggs, which one might still 

 fake for a living gall-insect, so small an appearance'of 

 life is there ia tin's strange animal. The young are 

 -hatched in a short time, wheij there, immediately appears 

 a multitude of very small animated membranes, either 

 x>val or circular, -which are borne on MX legs, and dis- 

 perse themselves on all sides with a wonderful celerity. 



6. Several of the species that live in society, present 

 us with three sorts of individuals ; to wit, males, fern a /.--, 



.-and -neuters, or individuals that remain uhv.avs deprived 

 of sex: this we observe in the republics of bses, W(*sps 9 

 and ants, We know that each swarm of bees has but 

 one female, which bears the name of -queen; the males, 

 which are called drorws, pretty often amount to four or 

 five hundred ; the neuters, which are much more nu- 

 merous, are sometimes forty or fifty thousand in number. 



"These are the Holes of the little Sparta ; they are charged 

 with ail ,the labour. The queen and drone are wholly 

 taken up in furnishing the state with citizens ; she is, in 



