HYMENOPTEUA. 447 



than many other insects. They are certainly endowed with greater 

 variety of instinctive powers than most, and probably than any other 

 insect ; coming, in appearance, nearer to human reason than perhaps in 

 any animal we are acquainted with. In most animals the economy of 

 life is simple ; therefore they have little occasion for great variety in 

 their instinctive principles, while the bee-tribe would seem to imitate art 

 or invention. 



"When we consider that many of the species live in families, in which 

 all work to the same end, providing for tomorrow, making habitations 

 for themselves and for the offspring, many, as the common labourers, 

 working for the latter while they themselves have not enjoyed the 

 functions of a mother, and do not even possess the powers, — all this 

 (although instinctive) comes nearest to the effects of human reason of 

 anything we know. We must admit that there is a considerable extent 

 of instinctive powers. Nevertheless it is confined ; its uniformity shows 

 this, as all instinctive principles are uniform. 



The attachment of the young to the old [as of the labourers to the 

 queen], in many of the species, is as curious a part as any in the natural 

 history of this tribe. They are not only attached to her, but to her 

 oifspring, as to their brothers and sisters ; for, as soon as they are fit to 

 work, they do all the second part of propagation. In the common bee 

 this is done by the labourers only, but it is not the case with all of the 

 bee-tribe. Many are only male and female. In such the female makes 

 her nest or hive, deposits her eggs, and takes no further notice of them. 



All this tribe of insects have pincers or forceps at their mouths ; 

 which, in the bee, serve as a weapon of offence and defence, for holding 

 anything they want to move from place to place ; as also to model their 

 wax in the making of their cells. The blades of the forceps cross one 

 another, but it is not always the same that overlaps. 



The females of this tribe of insects, so far as I am acquainted, have 

 stings 1 , while the males have none ; which might make us suppose, 

 without any other knowledge of them, that the females were the active 

 part of the community. When we consider that it is not with each 

 other that they fight, as is the case with many animals, and particularly 

 with the common cock, their stings appear to be a defence against 

 enemies of other classes of animals. And when they do fight with each 

 other, it is not the sting that they use, but their nippers or forceps. 



They do not all colonize ; and those that do, congregate in different 

 ways. It is probable that the humble-bee, hornet, wasp, colonize in 

 the same way. The common bee goes off in a large colony from a stock 



1 [Two genera of exotic bees, Melipona and Trigona, have since been discovered, 

 which are stingless. — Fr. Smith.] 



