PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 14] 
workers had shut it up; though sometimes, but not 
often, a female will break through the side of her prison?. 
Having thus shown you our little chemists in their 
preparatory states, and carried you from the egg to the 
cocoon, both of which may be deemed a kind of cradle, 
in which they are nursed to fit them for two very dif 
ferent conditions of existence, I must now introduce you 
to a scene more interesting and diversified; in which all 
their wonderful instincts are displayed in full action, and 
we see them exceed some of the most vaunted products of 
human wisdom, art, and skill. 
The gucen-mother here demands our first attention, as 
the personage upon whom, when established in her regal 
dignity, the welfare and happiness of the apiarian com- 
munity altogether depend. I shall begin my history with 
the events that befall her on her quitting the royal cradle 
and appearing in the perfect state. And here you will 
find that the first moments of her life, prior to her elec- 
tion to lead a swarm or fill a vacant throne, are moments 
of the greatest uneasiness and vexation, if not of extreme 
peril and vindictive and mortal warfare. ‘The Homeric 
maxim, that “the government of many is not good?,” 
is fully adopted and rigorously adhered to in these socie- 
ties. The jealous Semiramis of the hive will bear no rival 
near her throne. There are usually not less than sixteen, 
and sometimes not less than twenty, royal cells in the 
same nest; you may therefore conceive what a sacrifice 
is made when one only is suffered to live and to reign. 
But here a distinction obtains which should not be over- 
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