A XT COMMUNITIES 



unknown. There are, indeed, actions that at first give 

 the impression of such sensations, and it is not easy at 

 times to mark the difference between the product of 

 communal instinct and the promptings of real individual 

 kindness. But the evidence, on the whole, seems to be 

 against the existence of any sentiment separate from 

 that Spirit of the Sodality which, with and under all 

 serisori-motor reflexes, sweeps on the mass and the 

 individual alike, with whatever variations, diversions, 

 and seeming contradictions, to the one sovereign end- 

 the perpetuation of the commune. 



A few examples from my studies of the honey-ants 

 will illustrate this view. It was seen in exploring the 

 nests in natural sites that the workers showed great in- 

 terest in the preservation of the rotunds, or honey-bear- 

 ers. As the honey-rooms were opened, and the rotunds 

 disturbed from their roosts, the workers of all castes 

 rushed eagerly to them and dragged them into the un- 

 broken interior (Fig. 96). Sometimes several would join 



Fig. 96 HONEY-ANT WORKERS IN ACTION 



a 



a Honey-ant dragging a rotund up a wall, b Workers 



moving a rotund, or honey-bearer 



200 



