182 ON THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES 



animals, cannot be withdrawn, owing to the backward 

 serratures, and so inevitably causes the death of the 

 insect by tearing out its viscera ? 



If we look at the sting of the bee, as having origin- 

 ally existed in a remote progenitor as a boring and 

 serrated instrument, like that in so many members of 

 the same great order, and which has been modified but 

 not perfected for its present purpose, with the poison 

 originally adapted to cause galls subsequently intensi- 

 fied, we can perhaps understand how it is that the use 

 of the sting should so often cause the insect's own 

 death : for if on the whole the power of stinging be 

 useful to the community, it will fulfil all the require- 

 ments of natural selection, though it may cause the 

 death of some few members. If we admire the truly 

 wonderful power of scent by which the males of many 

 insects find their females, can we admire the produc- 

 tion for this single purpose of thousands of drones, 

 which are utterly useless to the community for any 

 other end, and which are ultimately slaughtered by 

 their industrious and sterile sisters ? It may be diffi- 

 cult, but we ought to admire the savage instinctive 

 hatred of the queen-bee, which urges her instantly to 

 destroy the young queens her daughters as soon as 

 born, or to perish herself in the combat ; for undoubt- 

 edly this is for the good of the community ; and 

 maternal love or maternal hatred, though the latter 

 fortunately is most rare, is all the same to the inexor- 

 able principle of natural selection. If we admire the 

 several ingenious contrivances, by which the flowers of 

 the orchis and of many other plants are fertilised 

 through insect agency, can we consider as equally 

 perfect the elaboration by our fir-trees of dense clouds 

 of pollen, in order that a few granules may be wafted 

 by a chance breeze on to the ovules ? 



Summary of Chapter. — We have in this chapter dis- 

 cussed some of the difficulties and objections which may 

 be urged against my theory. Many of them are very 

 serious ; but I think that in the discussion light has beeo 



