PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 369 
of male eggs in the month of May, she oviposits in the royal cells when 
about three or four lines in length, which the workers have in the mean- 
time constructed. These, however, are not all furnished in one day, — a 
most essential provision, in consequence of which the queens come forth 
successively, in order to lead successive swarms. There is something sin- 
cular in the manner in which the workers treat the young queens that are 
to lead the swarms. After the cells are covered in, one of ‘their first 
employments is to remove here and there a portion of the wax from their 
surface, so as to render it unequal; and immediately before the last meta- 
morphosis takes place, the walls are so thin that all the motions of tiie in- 
closed pupa are perceptible through them. On the seventh day the part 
covering the head and trunk of the young female, if I may so speak, is 
almost entirely unwaxed. This operation of the bees facilitates her exit, 
and probably renders the evaporation of the superabundant fluids of the 
body of the pupa more easy. 
You will conclude, perhaps, when all things are thus prepared for the 
coming forth of the inclosed female, that she will quit her cell at the 
regular period, which is seven days :—but you would be mistaken. Were 
she indeed permitted to pursue her own inclinations, this would be the 
case; but here the bees show how much they are guided in their instinct 
by circumstances and the wants of their society ; for did the new queen 
leave her cell, she would immediately attack and destroy those in the other 
cells ; a proceeding which they permit, as I have before stated, when they 
only want a successor to a defunct or a lost sovereign. As soon, there- 
fore, as the workers perceive —which the transparency of the cell permits 
them to do —that the young queen has cut circularly through her cocoon, 
they immediately solder the cleft up with some particles of wax, and so 
keep her a prisoner against her will. Upon this, as if to complain of such 
treatment, she emits a distinct sound, which excites no pity m the breasts 
of her subjects, who detain her a prisoner two days longer than nature has 
assigned for her confinement. In the interim, she sometimes thrusts her 
tongue through the cleft she has made, drawing it in and out till she is 
noticed by the workers, to make them understand that she is in want of 
food. Upon perceiving this they give her honey, till her hunger being 
satisfied she draws her tongue back — upon which they stop the orifice 
with wax! 
You may think it perhaps extraordinary that the workers should thus 
endeavour to retard the appearance of their young females beyond its 
natural limit; but when I explain to you the reason for this seeming incon- 
gruity of instinct, you will adore the wisdom that implanted it. Were a 
queen permitted to leave her cell as soon as the natural term for it arrived, 
it would require some time to fit her for flight, and tolead forth a swarm; 
during which interval a troublesome task would be imposed upon the 
workers, who must constantly detain her a prisoner to prevent her from 
destroying her rivals, which would require the labours and attention of a 
much larger number than are necessary to keep her confined to her cell. 
On this account they never suffer her to come forth till she is perfectly fit 
to take her flight. When at length she is permitted to do this, if she ap- 
proaches the other royal cells the workers on guard seem greatly irritated 
against her, and pull and bite and chase her away ; and she enjoys tran- 
1 Huber. i. 256, 
BB 
