Note 3 — Chapter II · THE PINE PROCESSIONARY: THE NEST; THE COMMUNITY

With maternity and its imperious duties, communism ceases to be practicable. At first sight, certain Hymenoptera3 seem to declare the contrary. We find, for instance, the Mason-bees of the Sheds4 nesting in myriads on the same tiles and building a monumental edifice at which all the mothers work. Is this really a community? Not at all. It is a city in which the inhabitants have neighbours, not collaborators. Each mother kneads her pots of honey; each amasses a dowry for her offspring and nothing but a dowry for her offspring; each wears herself out for her family and only for her family. Oh, it would be a serious business if some one merely came and alighted on the brim of a cell that did not belong to her; the mistress of the house would give her to understand, by means of a sound drubbing, that manners such as those are not to be endured! She would have to skedaddle very quickly, unless she wanted a fight. The rights of property are sacred here.