ANT COMMUNITIES 



this is done, and done effectively, is a marvel of industry 

 and devotion probably unsurpassed in the records of 

 animal life. 



Why is this service undertaken? What is the im- 

 pelling force to such labors and sacrifice? The answer 

 is not far to find. It is the inborn and ingrained instinct 

 to preserve the species and the commune. For that 

 ants live, and for that they die. Their life is ideally 

 altruistic. Nature has so deeply fixed upon their or- 

 ganism the love of their own community and their own 

 kind that there seems to be no room for mere selfish 

 pleasure of any sort. The necessity to maintain by 

 their labors the host of males and virgin queens raises 

 no opposition, and apparently excites no ill will. It is a 

 communal necessity. It is exacted by nature. That 

 is enough for an ant citizen. 



I have never noticed in the working castes the faintest 

 ripple of anger or rude treatment toward these adult 

 dependents, suggestive of envy or of impatience under 

 their heavy burdens, and reacting in violence. Their 

 attitude is invariably helpful when help is needed, and 

 tolerant and good-tempered at all times. Not until the 

 crisis moment of the commune has come, when the great 

 exodus of the sexes is to begin, is there any show of wish 

 to be rid of their charges. And that is controlled by 

 the same imperative spirit of altruism toward the future 

 of the race, and has in it no trace of personal cruelty or 

 hate. 



Doubtless, in their brief and strenuous life, the pleas- 

 ures of appetite have some place, although indulged with 

 exemplary moderation. Theirs, too, must be the satis- 

 faction of all normal healthy organisms in natural work 

 and in the achievement of daily rounds of service. What 



ISO 



