PERFECYT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 135 
wings of the queen bee, which do not exceed those of 
the workers in length, he thinks that this may arise 
from their being ofa substance too stiff to admit of their 
extension. Those parts and points that were in a state 
to yield most easily to the action which this kind of nu- 
triment produced, would be most prominent; and the 
vertical position of the grub and pupa, since nature does 
nothing in vain, may probably assist this action, and 
render the parts of the animal more capable of such ex- 
tension than if it continued in a horizontal position. 
We know, with rospect to the human species and the 
larger animals, that numerous differences, both as to the 
form and relative proportion of parts, cccur continually. 
The cause of these differences we cannot always ascer- 
tain; yet in many instances they may either be derived 
from the nutriment which the embryo receives in the 
womb, or from the greater or less dimensions or higher 
or lower temperature of that organ—a case that analogi- 
cally would not be very wide of that of the grub or em- 
bryo of a bee inclosed in a cell. Some of the d fferences 
in man I now allude to, may often be caused by a par- 
ticular diet in childhood; a warmer or a colder, a looser 
or a tighter dress, or the like. ‘Thus, for instance, the 
Egyptians, who went bare-headed, had their skulls re- 
markably thick; while the Persians, who covered the 
head with a turban or mitre, were distinguished by the 
tenuity of theirs. Again, the inhabitants of certain di- 
stricts are often remarkable for peculiarities of form, which 
are evidently produced by local circumstances. 
The following reasoning may not be inapplicable to 
the development or non-development, according to their 
food and habitation, of the ovaries of these insects. An 
