THE COASTS OF SAINTONGE. 333 



We will now return to the royal chamber, which 

 on being broken open is always found to enclose the 

 one couple, who are the objects of the most assiduous 

 care, but who purchase their greatness at the cost of 

 perpetual seclusion ; for the doors and windows of 

 the chamber, although sufficient to admit of the 

 passage of a worker or a soldier, are too narrow to 

 enable the king, and a fortiori the queen, to pass 

 through them. The royal mother of the community, 

 who always rests on the ground in the centre of her 

 habitation, at once attracts the attention of the 

 observer. How slightly does she resemble that 

 graceful insect with delicate wings and slender form, 

 which was only three or four times the length and 

 thirty times the weight of a worker! Her wings 

 have disappeared, but while her head and thorax 

 remain almost unchanged, her abdomen has on the 

 contrary acquired an enormous development, which 

 seems to have no limit. In an old female, it is fifteen 

 hundred or two thousand times larger than the rest 

 of the body, and it reaches a length of nearly six 

 inches. At this time her weight is equal to thirty 

 thousand workers, and in consequence of this exces- 

 sive enlargement, the precautions taken to prevent 

 her flight are perfectly useless, for she is unable to 

 advance a single step. The male also has lost his 

 wings, but he is not changed in any other respect 

 either as to dimensions or form. Nevertheless he 

 makes little use of his power of locomotion, and is 

 generally hidden under one of the sides of the vast 

 abdomen of his companion. 



The workers and soldiers appear to pay very little 



