[42] In this these animals vary from the usual instinct of the social Hymenoptera, the ants, the wasps, and the humble-bees—with whom the females lay the first foundations of the colonies, unassisted by any neuters;—but in the swarms of the hive-bee an election may perhaps in some instances be said to take place.
[45] Gould's Account of English Ants, 22.
[46] The late John Hunter dissected two young queens. In the abdomen he found two ovaries, consisting of many hundred oviducts, each containing innumerable eggs.
[47] The anonymous author before alluded to, who observed the Ceylon white ants, says, that such was the size of the masses, which were tempered with a strong gluten, that they adhered though laid on the upper part of the breach.
[48] Latr. Hist. Nat. xiii. 64.
[49] N. Dict. D'Hist. Nat. xxii. 57, 58.
[50] Bochart, Hierozoic. ii. 1. iv. c. 22.
[51] M. P. Huber, in the account which, in imitation of De Geer, he has given of the discoveries made by his predecessors in the history of ants, having passed without notice, probably ignorant of the existence of such a writer, those of our intelligent countryman Gould, I shall here give a short analysis of them; from which it will appear, that he was one of their best, or rather their very best historian, till M. Huber's work came out. His Account of English Ants was published in 1747, long before either Linné or De Geer had written upon the subject.