13 
The workers have the instinctive knowledge 
that they cannot, as other insects do, exist individ- 
ually ; they are constructed, therefore, in so admi- 
rable a manner, as to make every thing subservi- 
ent to the safety and comfort of the mother of the 
brood. She is in their estimation as much a part 
of themselves, as an eye or a limb. Their care 
of her is a kind of self-preservation, a law im- 
planted in every living thing. Though the queen 
lays several eggs that will be transformed into 
queens, only one can exist in one colony. If two 
come forth at the same time, one must die for the 
welfare of the colony. 
Nature has inspired queens with the most deadly 
animosity towards each other, which nothing but 
actual death can satisfy. Mr. Huber relates the 
following remarkable combat of queens : “ In one 
of his hives fittest for observation, two young 
queens left their cells almost at the same moment. 
Whenever they observed each other, they rushed 
together apparently with great fury, and came into 
such a position, that the antennas were mutually 
seized by each other’s fangs. The head, breast, and 
abdomen of the one were opposed to the head, 
breast, and abdomen of the other. The extremity 
of their bodies had only to be curved, that they 
might be reciprocally pierced with the stiugs, and 
both fall dead together. But nature has not de- 
creed that the two combatants should perish in 
the duel : Avhen in the condition now described, 
they separate, and retreat with the utmost precip- 
itation ; and when these rivals felt their extremi- 
ties about to meet, they disengaged themselves, 
and each fled away. A few minutes after separa- 
ting, however, their mutual terror ceased, and they 
again began to seek each other. Immediately on 
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