PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS, 151 
when unfavourable weather retards the first swarm, that 
all the royal progeny perishes by the sting of their mo- 
ther, and then no swarm takes place. It is to be observ- 
ed that she never attacks.a royal cell till its inhabitant is 
ready to assume the pupa, therefore much will depend 
upon their age. When they arrive at this state, her 
horror of these cells, and aversion to them, are extreme: 
she attacks, perhaps, and destroys several; but finding 
it too laborious, for they are often numerous, to destroy 
the whole, the same agitation is caused in her as if she 
were forcibly prevented, and she becomes disposed to 
depart, rather than remain in the midst of her rivals, 
though her own offspring. 
But though the bees, in one of these cases, appear 
such unconcerned spectators of the destruction of royal 
personages, or rather, the applauders and inciters of the 
bloody fact; and in the other show little respect to them, 
put such a restraint upon their persons, and manifest 
such disregard to their wishes; yet when they are once 
acknowledged as governors of the hive, and leaders of 
the colony, their instinct assumes a new and wonderful 
direction. From this moment they become the “ pul- 
lica cura,” the objects of constant and universal atten- 
tion; and wherever they go, are greeted by a homage 
which evinces the entire devotion of their subjects. You 
seemed amused and interested in no shght degree by 
what I related in a former letter of the marked respect 
paid by the ants to their females*: but this will bear no 
comparison with that shown by the inhabitants of the 
* Sec above, p. 06. 
