64 STUDIES IN INSECT LIFE, ETC. 

 falls into a state of " death, damnation, and 

 despair." Therefore the bees usually guard the 

 cells until the first queen has been fertilised 

 and has returned to the hive, and also until 

 it has been clearly settled that a second swarm- 

 ing is not to take place, for in that case the 

 first hatched queen would lead the swarm and 

 one of her sisters would be wanted to replace 

 her in the hive. Should there be a second swarm 

 it will centre round the young queen as yet 

 unfertilised, and it may be that some of her 

 sisters may then escape and join the swarm, 

 in which case it either breaks up into as many 

 small swarms as there are queens, or the queens 

 fight till but one remains, or the workers put 

 all to death save one. A fight between two 

 queens is a venomous and a deadly affair. Al- 

 though sisters, although members of the same 

 exalted and exiguous caste, they seem to be 

 animated by the bitterest hatred, yet so strongly 

 implanted in their being is their devotion to 

 the future of the community that when, as they 

 sometimes do, they get into a mutually mur- 

 derous position where a stroke of the sting of 

 each would kill the other, they immediately 

 cease fighting and retire trembling for a time, 



