INSECTS IN GENERAL. 101 



study, and instruction, present themselves spontaneously to 

 such minds, without effort, and in the liveliest manner. The 

 most perfect instinct of insects is clearly analogous to this 

 accidental gift of nature, converted into a necessary and per- 

 severing habit, and perpetuated from generation to gene- 

 ration. 



To the habitual and stimulating causes which call this 

 faculty into action, such as the impression excited on the 

 senses by external objects, hunger, and the desire of repro- 

 duction, we must add, a predominating sentiment, that of the 

 preservation of posterity. Wherefore does the neuter bee, 

 which can have no feeling of maternity, from the time she is 

 placed from the moment of her birth, in a new hive, imme- 

 diately set to work on the construction of its radii ? If this 

 was merely for her own proper subsistence would it be neces- 

 sary that she devote herself to such long and painful labours ? 

 and wherefore should she suffer herself to die of hunger when 

 deprived of the queen which is to propagate her race ? What 

 can stimulate her to such minute, such attentive cares? 

 Why do the females of insects, which live in a solitary and 

 isolated manner, deposit their eggs with studious care pre- 

 viously to terminating their own existence ? Doubtless all this 

 is the result of an internal impulse, or maternal sentiment, 

 which they are compelled to obey. 



The earlier naturalists, inspired with a sort of respect for 

 the industrious society of bees, and also considering its utility, 

 accorded to it the first place in their methodical classifications 

 of insects. But on this point internal organization is the 

 essential character which ought to guide us. The possession 

 of an instinct more or less extended would be an indication of 

 order but little to be depended on. Among the bees them- 

 selves several species are to be found, which although very 

 much approximating in organization to the common bee, yet 

 living in a solitary manner, are much inferior on the score qf 



