122 



PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



the reigning queen to die or be killed, and the bees to have 

 discovered their loss, whether they would then receive a 

 foreigner that offers herself to them or is introduced amongst 

 them. Reaumur says they would do this immediately 1 ; but 

 Huber, who had better means of observing them, and studied 

 them with more undivided attention, affirms that this will 

 not be the case, unless twenty-four hours have elapsed since 

 the death of the old queen. Previously to this period, as if 

 they were absorbed by grief at their calamity, or indulged a 

 fond hope of her revival, an intruder would be treated exactly 

 as I have described. But when the period just mentioned is 

 past, they will receive any queen that is presented to them 

 with the customary homage, and she may occupy the vacant 

 throne. 2 



I must now beg you to attend to what takes place in the 

 second case that I mentioned, where queens are wanted to 

 lead forth swarms. Here you will, with reason, suppose that 

 nature has instilled some instinct into the bees, by which 

 these necessary individuals are rescued from the fury of the 

 reigning sovereign. 



Did the old queen of the hive remain in it till the young 

 ones were ready to come forth, her instinctive jealousy would 

 lead her to attack them all as successively produced; and 

 being so much older and stronger, the probability is that she 

 would destroy them, in which case there could be no swarms, 

 and the race would perish. But this is wisely prevented by 

 a circumstance which invariably takes place — that the first 

 swarm is conducted by this queen, and not by a newly dis- 

 closed one, as Reaumur and others have supposed. Pre- 

 viously to her departure, after her great laying 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 meantime constructed. These, however, are not all 

 furnished in one day, — a most essential provision, in con- 

 sequence of which the queens come forth successively, in 

 order to lead successive swarms. There is something sin- 

 gular in the manner in which the workers treat the young 



i Reaum. v. 268. 



2 Huber, i. 190, 



