28 THE NATURALIST IX NICARAGUA. [Ch. II. 



doing a thing, or that their actions are not guided by 

 thought and reflection? This view is much strengthened 

 by the fact that the cerebral ganglia in ants are more 

 developed than in any other insect, and that in all the 

 Hymenoptera, at the head of which they stand, " they 

 are many times larger than in the less intelligent 

 orders, such as beetles."* 



The Hymenoptera standing at the head of the Arti- 

 culata, and the Mammalia at the head of the Vertebrata, 

 it is curious to mark how in zoological history the ap- 

 pearance and development of these two orders (culmi- 

 nating in the one in the Ants, and in the other in the 

 Primates) run parallel. The Hymenoptera and the 

 Mammalia both make their first appearance early in the 

 secondary period, and it is not until the commencement 

 of the tertiary epoch that ants and monkeys appear upon 

 the scene. There the parallel ends : no one species of 

 ant has attained any great superiority above all its 

 fellows, whilst man is very far in advance of all the 

 other Primates. 



"When we see these intelligent insects dwelling toge- 

 ther in orderly communities of many thousands of indi- 

 viduals, their social instincts developed to a high degree 

 of perfection, making their marches with the regularity 

 of disciplined troops, showing ingenuity in the crossing 

 of difficult places, assisting each in danger, defending 

 their nests at the risk of their own lives, communicating 

 information rapidly to a great distance, making a 

 regular division of work, the whole community taking- 

 charge of the rearing of the young, and all imbued with 

 the stronger sense of industry, each individual labouring 

 * Darwin Descent of Man, vol. i. p. 145. 



