The Life of the Bee
has not succeeded, among the Xylocopæ, in passing beyond this first obscure line of love.
Among other Apiens, this groping idea assumes other forms. The Chalicodomæ of the out-houses, which are building-bees, the Dasypodæ and Halicti, which dig holes in the earth, unite in large colonies to construct their nests. But it is an illusory crowd composed of solitary units, that possess no mutual understanding, and do not act in common. Each one is profoundly isolated in the midst of the multitude, and builds a dwelling for itself alone, heedless of its neighbour. "They are," M. Perez remarks, "a mere congregation of individuals, brought together by similar tastes and habits, but observing scrupulously the maxim of each one for itself; in fact, a mere mob of workers, resembling the swarm of a hive only as regards their number and zeal.
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