16 



IMPERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



housed together in one nest or hive, the whole population of 

 which is originally derived from one common mother, and the 

 leaders of the swarms in each are the females. But the armies 

 of locusts, though they herd together, travel together, and 

 feed together, consist of an infinity of separate families, all 

 derived from different mothers, who have laid their eggs in 

 separate cells or houses in the earth ; so that there is little or 

 no analogy between the societies of locusts and those of bees 

 and ants ; and this pretended sultan is something quite differ- 

 ent from the queen bee or the female ants. It follows, therefore, 

 that as the locusts have no common mother, like the bees, to 

 lead their swarms, there is no one that nature, by a different 

 organisation and ampler dimensions, and a more august form, 

 has destined to this high office. The only question remaining 

 is, whether one be elected from the rest by common consent 

 as their leader, or whether their instinct impels them to follow 

 the first that takes flight or alights. This last is the learned 

 Bochart's opinion, and seems much the most reasonable. 1 The 

 absurdity of the other supposition, that an election is made, 

 will appear from such queries as these, at which you may 

 smile. Who are the electors ? Are the myriads of millions 

 all consulted, or is the elective franchise confined to a few ? 

 "Who holds the courts and takes the votes ? Who casts them 

 up and declares the result? When is the election made? 

 The larvae appear to be as much under government as the 

 perfect insect. Is the monarch then chosen by his peers when 

 they first leave the egg and emerge from their subterranean 

 caverns ? or have larva, pupa, and imago each their separate 

 king ? The account given us in Scripture is certainly much 

 the most probable, that the locusts have no king, though they 

 observe as much order and regularity in their movements as if 

 they were under military discipline, and had a ruler over them. 2 

 Some species of ants, as we learn from the admirable history 

 of them by M. P. Huber, though they go forth by common 

 consent upon their military expeditions, yet the order of their 

 columns keeps perpetually changing ; so that those who lead 

 the van at the first setting out soon fall into the rear, and 



1 Bochart, Hierozoic, ubi supra. 



2 Proverbs, xxx. 27. 



