362 THE PHILOSOPHY 



' the ground under their covered galleries, are ek^ed Kings and 

 ' ^eens of new ftates ; all thofe who are not fo eleded and pre- 

 ' ferved certainly perifh. The manner in which thefe labourers 



* proted the happy pair from their innumerable enemies, not only 

 ' on the day of the maflacre of almoft all their race, but for a long 

 ' time after, will, I hope, juftify me in the ufe of the term election. 

 *■ The little induftrious creatures immediately inclofe them in a fmall 

 ' chamber of clay fuitable to their fize, into which, at firft, they 

 ' leave but one fmall entrance, large enough for themfelves and the 

 ' foldiers to go in and out, but much too little for either of the roy- 

 '^ al pair to make ufe of; and, when neceffity obliges them to make 

 *■ more entrances, they are never larger ; fo that, of courfe, the vo- 

 ' luntary fuhjeth charge themfelves with the tafk of providing for 

 ' the offspring of their fovereigns, as well as to work and to fight 



* for them, until they have raifed a progeny capable at leaft of di- 

 ' viding the talk with them. 



' It is not till this, probably, that they confummate their mar^ 

 ' riage, as I never faw a pair of them joined. The bufmefs of pro- 

 ' pagation, however, foon commences ; and the labourers having 

 ' conftruded a fmall wooden nurfery, carry the eggs and lodge 

 '■ them there as faft aS they can obtain them from the queen. 



' About this time a moft extraordinary change begins to take 



* place in the queen, to which I know nothing fimilar, except in the 

 *' pulex pcjietrans of Linnaeus, (ht jigger of the Weft Indies, and in 

 ' the different fpecies oi coccus, cochineal. The abdomen of this fe- 

 ' male begins gradually to extend and enlarge to fuch an enormou^ 

 ' fi?e, that an old queen will have it incrcafed fo as to hejijteen hun-r- 



* dred or ttvo thoujund times the bulk of the reft of her body, and 

 ' tiventy or thirty thou/and times the bulk of a labourer, as I have 



* found by carefully, weighing and computing the different ftates. 



' The, 



