48 



PEEFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



bees render to their queen. All press round her, offer her 

 food, conduct her by her mandibles through the difficult or 

 steep passages of the formicary; nay, they sometimes even 

 carry her about their city ; — she is then suspended upon their 

 jaws, the ends of which are crossed ; and, being coiled up like 

 the tongue of a butterfly, she is packed so close as to incom- 

 mode the carrier but little. When she sets her down, others 

 surround and caress her, one after another tapping her on the 

 head with their antenna?. " In whatever apartment," says 

 Gould, " a queen condescends to be present, she commands 

 obedience and respect. An universal gladness spreads itself 

 through the whole cell, which is expressed by particular acts 

 of joy and exultation. They have a particular way of skipping, 

 leaping, and standing upon their hind-legs, and prancing with 

 the others. These frolics they make use of, both to con- 

 gratulate each other when they meet, and to show their regard 

 for the queen ; some of them gently walk over her, others 

 dance round her : she is generally encircled with a cluster of 

 attendants, who, if you separate them from her, soon collect 

 themselves into a body, and enclose her in the midst." 1 Nay, 

 even if she dies, as if they were unwilling to believe it, they 

 continue sometimes for months the same attentions to her, and 

 treat her with the same courtly formality as if she were alive, 

 and they will brush her and lick her incessantly. 2 



This homage paid by the workers to their queens, according 

 to Gould, is temporary and local; — when she has laid eggs in 

 any cell, their attentions, he observed, seemed to relax, and 

 she became unsettled and uneasy. In the summer months she 

 is to be met with in various apartments in the colony ; and 

 eggs also are to be seen in several places, which induced him 

 to believe that, having deposited a parcel in one, she retires to 

 another for the same purpose, thus frequently changing her 

 situation and attendants. As there are always a number of 

 lodgements void of eggs, but full of ants, she is never at a loss 

 for an agreeable station and submissive retinue ; and by the 

 time she has gone her rounds in this manner, the eggs first 

 laid are brought to perfection, and her old attendants are glad 



i Gould, p, 24—. 



12 Compare Gould, p. 25., with Huber, 125. note (1). 



