INSECT SOCIETIES. 97 



blance, either in size or habits, to the pampered individual who 

 nominally fills the throne, and actually fills the hive by supply- 

 ing its abundant population. 



The royal female to whom this endowment of surpassing 

 productiveness forms the very charter of her authority, the 

 very bond by which she holds the hearts of her devoted sub- 

 jects, derives from character but slender claims on their respect. 

 During the entire period of her life and reign, which is gen- 

 erally estimated at about two or three years, she performs not 

 a single labour for the good of the community, save that 

 of increasing its numbers; and her bulky body is seldom 

 roused from its wonted state of luxurious indolence, except 

 when her royal spirit is chafed by vindictive jealousy. 



The queen of the hive, born, like the queens of earth, no 

 better than her meaner sisterhood, like them, issues from the 

 egg a helpless grub ; but the chamber of her birth, as compared 

 with theirs, is of right royal dimensions, vertical in position, 

 and of cylindric instead of octagonal form. Ample room is 

 thus afforded for the full expansion and development of all her 

 members, as she progresses towards maturity ; while, to hasten 

 and improve her growth, the food supplied her by her assi- 

 duous nurses and future subjects is of the most nutritious and 

 delicate description; not the simple Bee-bread composed of 

 common pollen, and considered good enough for common Bee- 

 infancy, but a rare and curious preparation nicely concocted 

 from flowery juices, and, as reserved expressly for royal 

 nutriment, called by Bee-farmers, " royal jelly." Thus spa- 

 ciously lodged and delicately fed, the favoured grub, when 

 arrived at full growth, spins within her cell a silken shroud ; 

 therein changes to a nymph or pupa ; and thence, in due time, 

 issues forth in all her dignity of majestic size, in all the re- 

 splendency of her golden-ringed body-suit, the more conspi- 

 cuous for the scantiness of her gauze drapery, those filmy 

 wings in which alone her outward gifts, instead of surpassing, 

 are inferior to those of her subjects. 



