436 proceedings of the academy of [1893. 



December 5. 



The President, General Isaac J. Wistar, in the chair. 



One hundred and thirty- eight persons present. 



A paper entitled ' ' Earthenware of Florida, Collections of Clar- 

 ence B. Moore," by W. H. Holmes, was presented for publication. 



Dr. Benjamin Sharp made a communication on his recent visit 

 to the Hawaiian Islands. (No abstract). 



Heredity in the Social Colonies of the Hymenoptera. — At the 

 meeting of the Academy held May 23 Prof. Edw. D. Cope, 

 referring to the question of heredity in the social colonies of the Hy- 

 menoptera, remarked that perhaps the strongest case that can be 

 made out against the theory of use- inheritance has been presented by 

 Mr. W. P. Ball, * viz. : that of the variety of structure displayed 

 by the neuter members of the colonies of ants and termites. Mr. 

 Ball describes these briefly as follows: 



"But there happens to be a tolerably clear proof that such changes 

 as the evolution of complicated structures and habits and social in- 

 stincts can take place independently of use- inheritance. The won- 

 derful instincts of the working bees have apparently been evolved 

 (at least in all their later social complications and developments) 

 without the aid of use- inheritance nay, in spite of its utmost opposi- 

 tion. Working bees, being infertile "neuters," cannot, as a rule, 

 transmit their own modifications and habits. They are descended 

 from countless generations of queen bees and drones, whose habits 

 have been widely different from those of the workers, and whose 

 structures are dissimilar in various respects. In many species of 

 ants there are two, and in the leaf-cutting ants of Brazil there are 

 three kinds of neuters which differ from each other and from their 

 male and female ancestors "to an almost incredible degree." 1 The 

 soldier caste is distinguished from the workers by enormously large 



*The Effects of Use and Disuse. Nature Series, 1890, P. 24. 



Origin of Species, pp. 230, 232; Bates' Naturalist ou the Amazons. Dar- 

 win " is surprised that no one has hitherto advanced the demonstrative case of 

 neuter insects, against the well-known doctrine of inherited habit, as advanced 

 by Lamarck." As he justly observes, "it proves that with animals, as with 

 plants, any amount of modification may be effected by the accumulation of 

 numerous, slight, spontaneous variations, which are in any way profitable, with- 

 out exercise or habit having been brought into play. For peculiar habits 

 confined to the workers or sterile females, however long they might be followed, 

 oould not possibly affect the males and fertile females, which alone leave any 

 descendants." Some slight modification of these remarks, however, may 

 possibly be needed to meet the case of " factitious queens," who ( probably through 

 eating particles of the royal food) become capable of producing a few male eggs. 



