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# Butler's bee hierarchy with a queen at the head, an aristocracy and a plebs
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/ierarkhiia-pchelinogo-obshchestva-illiustratsiia-iz-nauchnoi-knigi-1609-goda-zhenskaia-monarkhiia-ili-istoriia-pchel-angliiskogo-naturalista-charlza-batlera/
- Published: 2023-08-16T06:17:15.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-02T18:47:27.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Archive, Books, Monarchies, Science, Nature

The Hierarchy of Bee Society: An Illustration from The Feminine Monarchie, or The History of Bees, the 1609 Scientific Book by the English Naturalist Charles Butler.

That bee society is headed by a queen was news at the time; this fact had been discovered only at the end of the 16th century.

According to Butler, the bee hierarchy is headed by the queen; below her in the social system stands a bee aristocracy, the commanders or leaders, while at the base of every colony are the worker bees, labelled on the diagram as the plebs. The drones are placed outside these «wonderful houses, built with art, for the keeping of royal treasures».