THE ENEMIES OF BEES. 147 



the absence or the slaughter of a queen much more 

 readily exposes her disheartened subjects to attacks 

 from other bees; and this is another reason for seeing 

 that no such calamity as queenlessness has befallen 

 any stock when food is scarce. 



In the facts recorded in this chapter we have 

 striking evidence of "the struggle for existence" 

 which seems to have been ordained as "a law of 

 nature " in this world. We can readily discern some 

 useful purposes connected with it, both as regards 

 conquerors and vanquished. For, on the one hand, 

 it is for the benefit of the race that the strongest 

 individuals should, as a rule, survive to propagate 

 it ; and, on the other, it is better for a sharp and 

 speedy end to occur to a weak community, rather 

 than that it should perish by the slow pangs of 

 hunger, or from inability to continue the rearing of 

 a progeny. But, even in this respect, as in several 

 others, bees furnish a serious difficulty to the theory 

 of evolution. For it is not the strong and victorious 

 community which propagates the race, but the 

 individual queen ; and she, of course, may be weaker 

 than the one whose stock has been destroyed by the 

 more numerous robbers. The case evidently is not 

 a genuine one of "survival of the fittest," so far as 

 the succeeding generations are concerned ; nor do 

 we find any special adaptation for future advantages 

 secured. The battle is lost and won, but there can 

 be no impress made, even by successive victories, on 

 the general physical condition of the stronger party ; 

 for the fight is never undertaken by a single drone 

 or queen, who alone can transmit any qualities to 

 posterity. 



L 2 



