PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



133 



devoured them. Retarded queens, however, lose this instinct, 

 and often, though they lay only male eggs, oviposit in worker 

 cells, and even in royal ones. In this latter case the workers 

 themselves act as if they suffered in their instinct from the 

 imperfect state of their queen ; for they feed these male 

 larvse with royal jelly, and treat them as they would a real 

 queen. Though male eggs deposited in worker cells produce 

 small males, their education in a royal cell with " royal 

 dainties " adds nothing to their ordinary dimensions. 1 



The swarming of bees is a very curious and interesting 

 subject, to which, since a female is the sine qua non on this 

 occasion, I may very properly call your attention here. You 

 will recollect that I said something upon the principle of 

 emigrations, when I was amusing you with the history 

 of ants ; but the object with them seems to be merely a 

 change of station for one more convenient or less exposed to 

 injury, and not to diminish a superabundant population. 

 Whereas in the societies of the hive-bee, the latter is the 

 general cause of emigrations, which invariably take place 

 every year, if their numbers require it ; if not, when the 

 male eggs are laid no royal cells are constructed, and no 

 swarm is led forth. What might be the case with ants, were 

 they confined to hives, we cannot say. Formicaries in 

 general are capable of indefinite enlargement, therefore want 

 of room does not cause emigration ; — but bees being confined 

 to a given space, which they possess not the means of en- 

 larging, to avoid the ill effects resulting from being too 

 much crowded, when their population exceeds a certain limit 

 they must necessarily emigrate. Sometimes — for instance, 

 when wasps have got into a hive — the bees will leave it, in 

 order to fly from an inconvenience or enemy which they 

 cannot otherwise avoid ; but it does not very often happen 

 that they wholly desert a hive. 



Apiarists tell us that, in this country, the best season for 

 swarming is from the middle of May till the middle of June; 

 but swarms sometimes occur so early as the beginning of 

 April, and as late as the middle of August. 2 The first swarm, 



« Huber, i. 122. 



2 Keys On Bees, 76. 



K 3 



