PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 145 
them when they appeared to avoid each other. To wit- 
ness the homage, respect and love that they usually ma- 
nifest to their lawful ruler; the anxiety concerning her 
which they often exhibit; and the distrust which for a 
time (as we shall see hereafter) they usually show towards 
strange ones even when deprived of their own ; one would 
expect that, rather than permit such a perilous combat, 
they would unite in the defence of their sovereign, and 
cause the interloper to perish under the stroke of their 
fatal stings. But no; the contest for empire must be be- 
tween the rival candidates: no worker must interfere in 
any other way than that which I have described ; no con- 
tending armies must fight the battles of their sovereigns, 
for the law of succession seems to be “ detur fortiori. 
But to return to my narrative. The legitimate queen ap- 
pearing inclined to move towards that part of the comb 
on which her rival was stationed, the bees immediately 
began to retire from the space that intervened between 
them, so that there was soon a clear arena for the com- 
bat. When they could discern each other, the rightful 
queen rushing furiously upon the pretender, seized her 
with her jaws near the root of the wings, and, after fixing 
her without power of motion against the comb, with one 
stroke of her sting dispatched her. If ever-so-many 
queens are introduced into a hive, all but one will perish, 
and that one will have won the throne by her own unas- 
sisted valour and strength. Sometimes a strange queen 
attemps of herself to enter a hive: in this case the work- 
ers, who are upon the watch and who examine every 
thing that presents itself; immediately seize her with their 
jaws by the legs or wings, and hem her in so straitly with 
a clustered circle of guards, turning their heads on all sides 
VOL. IT. L a 
