PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 115 
stances however, if a conjecture of M. de la Billardiére 
be correct, these creatures have an assistant assigned to 
them. He says, at this season (the approach of winter) 
he found in the nest of Apis Sylvarum (Kirby) some old 
females and workers, whose wings were fastened to- 
gether to retain them in the nest by hindering them from 
flying; these wings in each individual were fastened to- 
gether at the extremity, by means of some very brown 
wax applied above and below?. ‘This he conceives to be 
a precaution taken by the other bees to oblige these in- 
dividuals to remain in the nest and take care of the brood 
that was next year to renew the population of the colony. 
I feel, however, great hesitation in admitting this con- 
jecture, fourided upon an insulated and perhaps an acci- 
dental fact. For, in the first place, the young females 
that come forth in the autumn, and not the old ones, 
are the founders of new colonies; and their instinct di- 
rects them to fulfill the great laws of their nature without 
such compulsion; and in the next, the workers are never 
known to survive the cold of winter. 
The employment of a large female, besides the care 
of the young brood before described, and the collecting 
of honey and pollen, is principally the construction of the 
cells in which her eggs are to be laid; which M. P. Hu- 
ber seems to think, though they often assist in it, the 
workers are not able to complete by themselves. So 
rapid is the female in this work, that to make a cell, fill 
it with pollen, commit one or two eggs to it, and cover 
them in, requires only the short space of half an hour. 
@ Mémoires du Muséum, &c¢. 1. 55. 
12 
