362 AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG. 



fested by many other species of the same tribe, particularly 

 of the genera Lycosa and Dolomeda, Walck. Araneaholo- 

 sericea, L. (Clubiona, Walck.) was found by De Geer in 

 her nest with fifty or sixty young ones, when manifesting 

 nothing of her usual timidity, so obstinately did she per- 

 sist in remaining with them, that to drive her away it was 

 necessary to cut her whole nest in pieces . 



I must now conduct you to a hasty survey of those in- 

 sects which live together in societies and fabricate dwell- 

 ings for the community, such as ants, Wasps, bees, humble- 

 bees, and termites, whose great object (sometimes combined 

 indeed with the storing up of a stock of winter provisions 

 for themselves) is the nutrition and education of their 

 young. Of the proceedings of many of these insects we 

 know comparatively nothing. There are, it is likely, 

 some hundreds of distinct species of bees which live in so- 

 cieties, and form nests of a different and peculiar construc- 

 tion. The constitution of these societies is probably as 

 various as the exterior forms of their nests, and their ha- 

 bits possibly curious in the highest degree ; yet our know- 

 ledge is almost confined to the economy of the hive-bee 

 and of some species of humble-bees. The same may be 

 said of wasps, ants, and termites, of which, though there 

 is a vast variety of different kinds, we are acquainted with 

 the history of but a very few. You will not therefore 

 expect more than a sketch of the most interesting traits 

 of affection for their young, manifested by the common 

 species of each genus. 



One circumstance must be premised with regard to the 



3 De Geei'j vii, 968. 



