CHAPTER XIV. 



THE PONERINE ANTS. 



" Si tout est matiere en ce monde, on surprend ici le mouvement le plus 

 immaterial de la matiere. II s'agit de passer de la vie egoiste, precaire, et in- 

 complete a la vie fraternelle, un pen plus sure et un pen plus heureuse. II 

 s'agit d'unir idealement par 1'esprit ce qui est reellement separe par le corps, 

 d'obtenir que 1'individu se sacrifie a 1'espece et de substituer ce qui ne se voit 

 pas aux choses qui se voient. . . Aussi est-il curieux, presque touchant, de 

 voir comme 1'idee nouvelle tatonne d'abord dans les tenebres qui enveloppent 

 tout ce qui nait sur cette terre. Elle sort de la matiere, elle est encore toute 

 materielle. Elle n'est que du froid, de la faim, de la peur transformed en une 

 chose qui n'a pas encore de figure. Elle rampe confusement autour des grands 

 dangers, autour des longues nuits, de 1'approche de 1'hiver, d'un sommeil equi- 

 voque qui est presque la mort." Maeterlinck, " La Vie de L'Abeille." 



The doubtful or indifferent attitude which investigators have 

 assumed of late towards phylogeny, partly through abuse of the his- 

 torical method on the part of some of its advocates, who have failed to 

 emphasize the provisional and highly problematical character of their 

 speculations, and partly through the attacks of a few experimentalists, 

 who would make us believe that they alone possess the key to all bio- 

 logical knowledge, can hardly be regarded as more than temporary a 

 silence without complete acquiescence in the prevailing fashion of 

 scientific thought. Although biologists now rarely undertake phylo- 

 genetic speculations on a grand scale, they are, perhaps, more active 

 than ever in pursuing such speculations within the more modest confines 

 of species, genera and families, where comparatively slight differences 

 between organisms restrict the problem and the investigator moves with 

 surer touch and deeper conviction. It may, indeed, be confidently 

 asserted that no one can undertake the study of any small group of 

 animals or plants in all its aspects without feeling the need of an his- 

 torical explanation of the manifold relationships which he constantly 

 witnesses. This is particularly true of such compact groups as the 

 Formicidje, which are represented by a sufficient number of closely 

 related genera and species to show, both in structure and habits, certain 

 definite, progressive tendencies of development. 



Of the five subfamilies of Formicidre only one, the Ponerinse, com- 

 prises unmistakably primitive and generalized forms and therefore 

 constitutes a group of two-fold interest, first, as the ancestral stirp of 

 the higher subfamilies, and second, as the oldest existing expression of 



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