CHAPTER VIII 

 FEMALE GOVERNMENT IN ANT COMMUNITIES 



THUS far our studies have been chiefly of the ex- 

 terior of the ant commune. We are now to take 

 a view of its internal economy. The reader may have 

 noticed that the author, in referring to the insects under 

 observation, gradually passed from pronouns of the 

 neuter to those of the feminine gender or, rather, has 

 used the two interchangeably. This accords with facts. 



o \j 



The worker ant, although in common parlance a "neuter," 

 is structurally a female. In her the special function of 

 the female, to produce the eggs from which the young 

 are reared, has been subordinated, though not wholly 

 atrophied ; for workers occasionally drop eggs, which are 

 cared for, and which yield males. 



Other faculties have been developed or have appeared 

 needful for communal safety and prosperity, and thus 

 it has come about that the government of these emmet 

 societies, as with bees, hornets, and wasps, is really a 

 gynarchy, or government by females. Our worker 

 ants are veritable Amazons. Not only does the entire 

 domestic control and service of community fall to them, 

 but also those more virile acts (according to human 

 standards) of war and public discipline and defence. 

 To the fact that the female temperament dominates 

 affairs we may perhaps attribute many of the charac- 

 teristics of public administration among social insects. 



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