Mr. smeathman’s Account of 
maffacre of almoft all their race, but for a long time after, 
will I hope juftify me in the ufe of the term election. 
The little induftrious creatures immediately enclofe them in 
a fmall chamber of clay fui table to their fixe, into which at 
firft they leave but one fmall: entrance, large enough for them- 
felves and the foldiers to go in and out, but much too little 
for either of the royal pair to make ufe of; and when ne- 
eeffity obliges them to make more entrances, they are never 
larger ; fo that, of courfe, the voluntary fubjetls charge them- 
felves with the talk of providing for the offspring of their 
fovereigns as well as to work and to fight for them until they 
fiiall have raifed. a progeny capable at leaf! of dividing the talk, 
with them. 
It is not until this time,, probably, that they confummate 
their marriage,, as I never faw a pair of them- joined. The 
bufinefs of propagation, however, foon commences, and the 
labourers having conftrudted a fmall wooden nurfery, as before 
defcribed, carry the eggs and lodge them there as fall as they 
can obtain them from the queen . 
About this time a moft extraordinary change begins to take 
place in -the- queen, to which I know nothing fimilar, except in 
thePULEX PENETRANS of LINNJEUS', the jigger of the W efi 
Indies , and in the different fpecies of coccus, cochineal. 
The abdomen of this female, begins gradually to extend and 
enlarge to fuck an enormous fize, that an old queen will have 
it increafed fo as to be fifteen hundred or two thoufand times the 
bulk of the reft of her body, and twenty or thirty thoufand 
times the bulk of a labourer, as I have found by carefully 
weighing and computing the different ftates (tab. X. fig. 3.). 
The Ikin between the fegments of the abdomen extends in 
every diredlion ; and at laft the fegments are removed to half an 
inch 
