INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 4.99 
majority of insects! It is not necessary to insist upon 
those differences which take place in the same insect in 
its different states, leading it to select one kind of food in 
the larva, and another in the perfect state; to defend it- 
self in one mode in the former, and in anether in the 
latter, &c.—because, however remarkable these varia- 
tions, they may be referred with great plausibility to 
those striking changes in the organic structure of the ani- 
mal, which occur at the two periods of its existence. It 
is to the number of instincts observable in the same indi- 
vidual of many insects in their perfect state that I now 
confine myself; and as the most striking example of the 
whole I shall select the hive-bee,—begeing you to bear 
in mind that I do not mean to include those exhibited by 
the queen, the drones, or even those of the workers, 
termed by Huber ciriéves (wax-makers); but only to 
enumerate those presented by that portion of the workers, 
termed by Huber nourrices or petites abeilles (nurses), 
upon whom, as you have been before told?, with the ex- 
ception of making wax, laying the foundation of the cells, 
and collecting honey for being stored, the principal la- 
bours of the hive devolve. It will be these individuals 
alone that I shall understand by the term dees, under the 
present head: and though the other inhabitants of the 
hive may occasionally concur in some of their actions and. 
labours, yet it is obvious that so many as are those in 
which they distinctly take part, so many instincts must 
we regard them as endowed with. 
To begin, then, with the formation of the colony :— 
By one instinct bees are directed to send out scouts pre- 
viously to their swarming in search of a suitable abode; 
a Vor, I. 4th Ed, 490. b See above, p. 189. 
2KZ 
