PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 16] 
during her ‘course of laying worker eggs, where she 
could only come at male cells, she refused to oviposit in 
them; and trying in vain to make her escape, they at 
length dropped from her; upon which the workers de- 
voured them. Retarded queens, however, lose this in- 
stinct, and often, though they lay only male eggs, ovipo- 
sit in worker cells, and even in royal ones. In this latter 
case the workers themselves act as if they suffered in their 
instinct from the imperfect state of their queen; for they 
feed these male larvae with royal jelly, and treat them as 
they would a real queen. ‘Though male eggs deposited 
in worker cells produce small males, their education in 
a royal cell with “ royal dainties” adds nothing to their 
-ordinary dimensions *. 
The swarming of bees is a very curious and interest- 
ing subject, to which, since a female is the sine quad non 
on this occasion, I may. very properly call your atten- 
tion here. You will recollect that I said something upon 
the principle of emigrations, when I was amusing you 
with the history of ants’; but the object with them seems 
to be merely a change of station for one more conve- 
nient or less exposed to injury, and not to diminish a 
superabundant population. Whereas, in the societies 
of the hive-bee, the latter is the general cause of emigra- 
tions, which invariably take place every year, if their 
numbers require it; if not, when the male eggs are laid, 
no royal cells are constructed, and no swarm is led forth. 
What might be the case with ants, were they confined 
to hives, we cannot say. Formicaries in general are ca- 
@ Huber, i. 122 — b See above, p. 57. 
VOL. II. M 
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