156 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 
and sometimes one that is entirely sterile, is treated by 
them with the same respect and homage as a fertile one. 
This seems to evince an amiable feeling in these crea- 
tures, attachment to the person as well as to the functions 
of the sovereign; which is further manifested by their 
unwillingness at first to receive a new sovereign upon 
the loss or death of their old one. Nay, this respect is 
sometimes shown to the carcase of a defunct queen, 
which Huber assures us he has seen bees treat with the 
same attention that they had shown her when alive; for 
a long time preferring her inanimate corpse to the fertile 
queens that he offered to them?. He attributes this to 
some agreeable sensation which they experience from 
their queens, independent of their fecundity. But since 
virgin queens, as we have seen, do not excite it, more 
probably it is a remnant of their former attachment, first 
excited by her fecundity, and afterwards strengthened 
and continued by habit. 
I may here introduce an interesting anecdote related 
by Reaumur, which strongly marks the attachment of 
bees to their queen when apparently lifeless. He took 
one out of the water quite motionless, and seemingly 
dead, which had lost part of one of its legs. Bringing 
it home, he placed it amongst some workers that he had 
found in the same situation, most of which he had re- 
vived by means of warmth; some however still being in 
as bad a state as the poor queen. No sooner did these 
revived workers perceive the latter in this wretched con- 
dition, than they appeared to compassionate her case, 
2 Huber, i, 322. 
