The Swarm 
her away from the hive at a time when 
the bees shall have no hope of filling her 
place, owing, it may be, to her having 
left no predestined descendants, or to 
there being no larve less than three days 
old (for a special nourishment is capable of 
transforming these into royal nymphs, such 
being the grand democratic principle of the 
hive, and a counterpoise to the prerogatives 
of maternal predestination), and then, her 
loss once known, after two or three hours, 
perhaps, for the city is vast, work will 
cease in almost every direction. The young 
will no longer be cared for; part of the 
inhabitants will wander in every direction, 
seeking their mother, in quest of whom 
others will sally forth from the hive; 
the workers engaged in constructing the 
comb will fall asunder and scatter, the 
foragers no longer will visit the flowers, 
the guard at the entrance will abandon 
their post; and foreign marauders, all the 
parasites of honey, forever on the watch 
for opportunities of plunder, will freely 
enter and leave without any one giving a 
thought to the defence of the treasure that 
67 
