PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS, 155 
cells in their new habitation*, Even when the bees 
have got young brood, haye built or are building royal 
cells, and are engaged in feeding these hopes of their 
hive, knowing that their great aim is already accom- 
plished, they cease all these employments when this in- 
truder comes amongst them. 
With regard to the ordinary attention and homage 
that they pay to their sovereigns—the bees do more 
than respect their queen, says Reaumur, they are con- 
stantly on the watch to make themselves useful to her, 
and to render her every kind office; they are for ever 
offering her honey; they lick her with their proboscis, 
and wherever she goes she has a court to attend upon 
her®,. It may here be observed, that the stimulant 
which excites the bees to these acts of homage is the 
pregnant state of their queen, and her fitness to main- 
tain the population of the hive; all they do being with 
a view to the public good: for while she remains a virgin 
she is treated with the utmost indifference, which is ex- 
changed, as soon as impregnation has taken place, for 
the above marks of attachment °. | 
The instinct of the bees, however, does not always 
enable them to distinguish a partially fertile queen from 
one that is universally so. What I mean is this—A 
queen, whose impregnation is retarded beyond thetwenty- 
eighth day of her whole existence, lays only male eggs, 
which are of no use whatever to the community, unless 
they are at the same time provided with a sufficient sup- 
ply of workers. Yet even a queen of this description, 
Ae Ae Atel 3 
@ Reaum. y. 262. » Reaum. v. Pref. xv. ¢ Tuber, 1. 269. 
