PERFECT SOCIETIES OL INSECTS. 117 
difference between them and the workers, but chiefly by 
the difference of their instincts:—from the other females 
they are distinguished solely by their diminutive size. 
Like those of the wasps and hive-bees, these minor 
queens produce only male eggs, which come out in time 
‘to fertilize the young females that found the vernal colo- 
nies. M. P. Huber suspects that, as in the case of the 
female bee, it is a different kind of food that develops 
their ovaries, and so distinguishes them from the workers. 
-They are generally attended by a small number of males, 
who form their court. 
M. Huber, watching at midnight the proceedings of 
a nest which he kept under a glass, observed the inhabit- 
ants to be in a state of great agitation: many of these 
bees were engaged in making a cell; the queen-mother 
of the colony, as she may be called, who is always ex- 
tremely jealous of her pygmy rivals, came and drove 
them away from the cell;—she in her turn was driven 
away by the others, which pursued her, beating their 
wings with the utmost fury, to the bottom of the nest. 
The cell was then constructed, and two of them at the 
same time oviposited in it. The queen returned to the 
charge, exhibiting similar signs of anger; and, chasing 
them away again, put her head into the cell, when 
seizing the eggs that had been laid, she was observed to 
eat them with great avidity. The same scene was again 
renewed, with the same issue. After this, one of the 
small females returned and covered the empty cells with 
wax. When the mother-queen was removed, several 
of the small females contended for the cell with inde- 
scribable rage, all endeavouring to lay their eggs in 
