PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



99 



their ovaries, and so distinguishes them from the workers. 

 They are generally attended by a small number of males, who 

 form their court. 



M. Huber, watching at midnight the proceedings of a nest 

 which he kept under a glass, observed the inhabitants to be 

 in a state of great agitation; many of these bees were engaged 

 in making a cell; the queen-mother of the colony, as she may 

 be called, who is always extremely jealous of her pigmy rivals, 

 came and drove them away from the cell ; — she in her turn 

 was driven away by the others, which pursued her, beating 

 their wings with the utmost fury, to the bottom of the nest. 

 The cell was then constructed, and two of them at the same 

 time oviposited in it. The queen returned to the charge, ex- 

 hibiting similar signs of anger ; and, chasing them away again, 

 put her head into the cell, when, seizing the eggs that had 

 been laid, she was observed to devour them with great avidity. 

 The same scene was again renewed, with the same issue. 

 After this, one of the small females returned and covered the 

 empty cells with wax. When the mother-queen was re- 

 moved, several of the small females contended for the cell 

 with indescribable rage, all endeavouring to lay their eggs in 

 it at the same time. These small females perish in the 

 autumn. 



The males are usually smaller than the large females, and 

 larger than the small ones and workers. They may be known 

 by their longer, more filiform, and slenderer antennae ; by the 

 different shape and by the beard of their mandibles. Their 

 posterior tibiae also want the corbicula and pecten that dis- 

 tinguish the individuals of the other sex, and their posterior 

 plantar have no auricle. We learn from Reaumur that the 

 male humble-bees are not an idle race, but work in concert 

 with the rest to repair any damage or derangement that may 

 befal the common habitation. 1 



1 It should be here observed that, besides the proper occupants of some hum- 

 ble-bees' nests, there are occasionally met with in them individuals of another 

 genus of the same family, so closely resembling them as to be often confounded 

 with them, which, being unprovided with the usual polliniferous organs, are sup- 

 posed to be, in their larva state, parasitic inhabitants of the nest. This genus, 

 which includes Apis rupestris F. &e., has been named Apathies by Mr. Newman, 

 Psithyrus by M. de St. Fargeau, and Pscudo-Bombus by Mr. Stephens. In like 

 manner, the exotic genus Chrysantlteda is supposed to be parasitic on the metallic 



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