302 HABITS AND INSTINCTS OF ANIMALS. CHAP. X. 



bourers progressively enlarge her cell, and, at the same 

 time, supply her and their king with food and every 

 thing needful. The abdomen of the female pro- 

 gressively increases, until it becomes 1500 or 2000 

 times larger than the rest of her body, thus making 

 her bulk equal to 20,000 or 30,000 of her own sub- 

 jects : her abdomen, in fact, is now a vast magazine 

 of eggs, which are sometimes protruded at the rate of 

 sixty in a minute, or more than 80,000 in twenty-four 

 hours. For how long a period oviposition continues, 

 we are not informed ; 1but the ordinary period, usually 

 observed in other insects, would give a number almost 

 incalculable. During this period, the royal chamber is 

 a scene of busy activity ; crowds of the attendant 

 labourers are passing and repassing, sedulously en- 

 gaged in receiving the eggs from their prolific queen, 

 and depositing them in distinct chambers or nurseries, 

 where they continue to show them unremitting atten- 

 tion, and supply them with food, until they are of an 

 age to procure it themselves. Meantime the soldiers, 

 as if to preserve order in the royal presence, are mixed 

 with the rest of the attendants in the presence chamber, 

 and seem to constitute a body-guard to the royal pair : 

 the adjacent apartments or anterooms, are occupied by 

 other labourers and soldiers in waiting, " that they may 

 successively attend upon and defend the common 

 father and mother, on whose safety depend the hap- 

 piness and even existence of the whole community, 

 and whom these faithful subjects never abandon, even 

 in the last distress." 



(309.) All the operations of these extraordinary 

 creatures are carried on under cover of their walls; 

 and it was only by breaking these, that Mr. Smeath- 

 man was able to prosecute his observations. Not only 

 is the city itself thus fenced in from all external 

 enemies, but none of its inhabitants ever expose their 

 soft and tender bodies to the light of day, at least 

 habitually, or for any considerable time. How, then, 

 it may be asked, do they wander about, and manage to 



