THE SWARM 

 And, for the sake of this future, each one 

 renounces more than half of her rights 

 and her joys. The queen bids farewell to 

 freedom, the light of day, and the calyx 

 of flowers; the workers give five or six 

 years of their life, and shall never know 

 love, or the joys of matemit}^ The 

 queen's brain turns to pulp, that the re- 

 productive organs may profit; in the 

 workers these organs atrophy, to the ben- 

 efit of their intelligence. Nor would it be 

 fair to allege that the will plays no part 

 in all these renouncements. We have 

 seen that each worker's larva can be 

 transfbrmed into a queen if lodged and 

 fed on the royal plan ; and similarly could 

 each royal larva be turned into worker if 

 her food were changed and her cell re- 

 [99] 



