64 WAYS OF THE SIX-FOOTED 



are after all as tender as they are defenceless, and but 

 little exposure and abstinence is required to terminate 

 their being. So thorough is the war of extermination 

 that no age is spared ! " 



The question as to the economy of developing so 

 many useless princes royal is a puzzling one, and can 

 only be explained by the theory that natural selection 

 has acted to preserve those colonies having many drones 

 — another instance of the flagrant waste of individuals 

 for the benefit of the race. I call to mind a slaughter 

 of drones I once witnessed in an observation hive. 

 The openings in the hive were large enough to admit 

 the workers only and therefore too small to allow the 

 passage of the bodies of the drones ; so the determined 

 workers spent several days in tearing their wretched 

 victims limb from limb and removing them in sections. 

 Below a small crevice at the bottom of the hive could 

 be seen a windrow of disjointed legs and wings torn 

 from the poor drones. The king ants die natural 

 deaths, if death from cold and starvation may be 

 called so ; at least, they are not subject to assassination 

 as are the king bees. The king termite is a noted ex- 

 ception in the insect world, as he lives a long and 

 exemplary life, sharing with his queen the attention 

 and devotion of his subjects. 



Devotion to royalty has been much misunderstood by 



