126 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



or rather the applauders and inciters of the bloody fact, and 

 in the other show little respect to them, put such a restraint 

 upon their persons, and manifest such disregard to their 

 wishes ; yet when they are once acknowledged as governors 

 of the hive, and leaders of the colony, their instinct assumes 

 a new and wonderful direction. From this moment they 

 become the "publico, cura? the objects of constant and 

 universal attention ; and wherever they go, are greeted by a 

 homage which evinces the entire devotion of their subjects. 

 You seemed amused and interested in no slight degree by 

 what I related in a former letter of the marked respect paid 

 by the ants to their females 1 ; but this will bear no com- 

 parison with that shown by the inhabitants of the hive to 

 their queen. She appears to be the very soul of all their 

 actions, and the centre of their instincts. When they are 

 deprived of her, or of the means of replacing her, they lose 

 all their activity, and pursue no longer their daily labours. 

 In vain the flowers tempt them with their nectar and 

 ambrosial dust : they collect neither ; they elaborate no wax, 

 and build no cells ; they scarcely seem to exist ; and, indeed, 

 would soon perish, were not the means of restoring their 

 monarch put within their reach. But, if a small piece of 

 comb containing the brood grubs of workers be given to 

 them, all seem endued with new life : their instincts revive ; 

 they immediately set about building royal cells ; they feed 

 with their appropriate food the grubs they have selected, and 

 every thing proceeds in the usual routine. Virgil has 

 described this attachment of the bees to their sovereign with 

 great truth and spirit in the following lines : — 



" Lydian nor Mede so much his king adores, 

 Nor those on Nilus' or Hydaspes' shores : 

 The state united stands while he remains ; 

 But should he fall, what dire confusion reigns ! 

 Their waxen combs and honey, late their joy, 

 With grief and rage distracted, they destroy : 

 He guards the works, with awe they him surround, 

 And crowd about him with triumphant sound ; 

 Him frequent on their duteous shoulders bear, 

 Bleed, fall, and die for him in glorious war." 



M. Huber thus describes the consequences of the loss of a 



1 See above, p. 48. 



