148 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 
they are guided in their instinct by circumstances and 
the wants of their society; for did the new queen leave 
her cell, she would immediately attack and destroy those 
in the other cells; a proceeding which they permit, as I 
have before stated, when they only want a successor to 
a defunct or a lost sovereign. As soon therefore as the 
workers perceive—which the transparency of the cell 
permits them to do—that the young queen has cut cir- 
cularly through her cocoon, they immediately solder the 
cleft up with some particles of wax, and so keep her a 
prisoner against her will. Upon this, as if to complain 
of such treatment, she emits a distinct sound, which ex- 
cites no pity in the breasts of her subjects, who detain 
her a prisoner two days longer than nature has assigned _ 
for her confinement. In the interim, ‘she sometimes 
thrusts her tongue through the cleft she has made, draw- 
ing it in and out till she is noticed by the workers, to 
make them understand that she is in want of food. Upon 
perceiving this they give her honey, till her hunger be- 
ing satisfied she draws her tongue back—upon which 
they stop the orifice with wax ?. 
You may think it perhaps extraordinary that the 
workers should thus endeavour to retard the appearance 
of their young females beyond its natural limit: but when 
I explain to you the reason for this seeming incongrui- 
ty of instinct, you will adore the wisdom that implanted 
it. Were a queen permitted to leave her cell as soon as 
the natural term for it arrived, it would require some 
time to fit her for flight, and to lead forth a swarm; du- 
ring which interval a troublesome task would be imposed 
@ Huber, i, 256. 
