342 THE INSECT WORLD. 
should retreat that very instant with the greatest precipitation. 
And so, as soon as the two rivals felt that their posterior parts were 
about to meet, they left go of each other, and each one ran away 
in an opposite direction. . . . . A few minutes after they had 
separated from each other their fear ceased, and they recommenced 
looking for each other. Very soon they perceived the object of 
their search, and we saw them running one against the other. 
They seized each other as at the first, and put themselves exactly 
in the same position. The result was the same; as soon as their 
abdomens approached each other they only thought of getting 
free, and ran away. The working bees were very much agitated 
during the whole of this time, and their tumult seemed to 
increase when the two adversaries separated from each other. 
We saw them on-two different occasions stop the queens in their 
flight, seize them by the legs, and keep them prisoners for more 
than a minute. At last, in a third attack, the queen which was 
the most infuriated or the strongest rushed upon her rival at a 
moment when she did not see her coming; seized her with her 
jaws by the base of her wing, then mounted on to her body, and 
brought the extremity of her abdomen over the last rings of her 
enemy, whom she was then able to pierce with her sting very easily. 
She then let go the wing which she held between her teeth, and 
drew back her dart. The vanquished queen dragged herself heavily 
along, lost her strength and expired soon afterwards.’’* 
These singular combats take place between young maiden queens. 
Francis Huber, by introducing into a hive some queens from other 
hives convinced himself that the same animosity impels the 
females which are pregnant to fight with and destroy each other. 
From the moment when the young queen to whom the sove- 
reignty has fallen is pregnant, she is anxious to destroy all the 
royal pupze which still exist in the hive, and which are then 
eiven up to her without resistance by the workers. 
OvK ayabdv roAvKolpavin eis Koloavos éoTw, 
His Bacitevs. . - - tt 
Become a mother, the female attacks one after the other the cells 
* “ Observations sur les Abeilles,”” tomei., pp. 174—178. 
+ “Many ruling together is not good: let there be one ruler, one king.’’—Homer’s 
“C TpTeL” ww, WHO, 
