THE DEGENERATE SLATE-MAKERS. 503 



natlnis testaccns, but there is nothing in the structure of Anergates or 

 of any of the other workerless ants to prove that they are descended 

 from slave-making species. More probable is the supposition that they 

 have been derived from temporary parasites or xenobiotic forms with 

 habits like those of Leptothorax ciucrsoni. The Ancryatcs or Whccl- 

 criclla. colony differs from those of species like Formica consociaus in 

 reaching its complete development, that is, the stage in which the sexual 

 offspring of the mother queen mature, in a much shorter period of time. 

 This period must fall within the lifetime of the Tetramorium or Mono- 

 morhtin workers and can therefore hardly exceed three or four years. 

 This acceleration of colonial development is made possible by a sup- 

 pression of the useless worker caste and a dwarfing of the sexual 

 individuals, although there is a concomitant increase in their numbers. 

 And all of these interesting compensatory developments are necessi- 

 tated in turn by the castration of the host colony, for this is what the 

 elimination of the host queen amounts to. As this is a mortal injury 

 to the host colony and a serious injury to the host species, it is not 

 surprising that the intrusion of the parasites is resisted and that the 

 latter, as Lubbock says, are " few in number and apparently nearly 

 extinct." In other words, extreme parasitism in ants, as in other 

 organisms, tends continually to defeat its own ends and to undermine 

 its own existence. 



The zoologist, as such, is not concerned with the ethical and socio- 

 logical aspects of parasitism, but the series of ants we have been con- 

 sidering in this and the four preceding chapters cannot fail to arrest 

 the attention of those to whom a knowledge of the paragon of social 

 animals is after all one of the chief aims of existence. He who without 

 prejudice studies the history of mankind will note that many organiza- 

 tions that thrive on the capital accumulated by other members of the 

 community, without an adequate return in productive labor, bear a 

 significant resemblance to many of the social parasites among ants. 

 This resemblance has been studied by sociologists, who have also been 

 able to point to detailed coincidences and analogies between human and 

 animal parasitism in general. 1 Space and the character of this work, 

 of course, forbid a consideration of the various parasitic or semi- 

 parasitic institutions and organizations social, political, ecclesiastical 

 and criminal that have at their inception timidly struggled for adop- 

 tion and support, and, after having obtained these, have grown great 

 and insolent, only to degenerate into nuisances from which the sane 



1 Cf., e. g., Massart and Vandervelde's interesting paper : " Parasitisme 

 Organique et Parasitisme Social," Bull. Sci. France ct Bclg., XXV, 1893. 



