122 .L\'TS. 



physiological state>. Similarly, nutricial castration may be said to be 

 a physiological state, namely that of hunger. 



\Ve may conclude therefore that the worker, both in its ontogenetic 

 and phylogenetic development, is through and through a hunger- form, 

 inured to protracted fasting. Miss Fielde has shown ( 1904/1 that the 

 workers of (.'ainpoiwtits aincricanns may live nearly nine months with- 

 out food, which is as long as the much larger and more vigorous 

 queens are known to fast while establishing their colonies. The larvae 

 of ants, too, are known to remain alive in the nests for months without 

 growing. And even when food is abundant the workers appropriate 

 very little of it to their individual maintenance, but distribute it freely 

 among their sister workers, the brood and queen. It is not improbable, 

 moreover, that the single instinct peculiar to workers, the instinct to 

 leave the nest and forage, is the direct result of a chronic state of 

 hunger. 



