found in the Interior of a False Acacia, 529 



necessary cares originating in the education of their own off- 

 spring, or, at least, in the preliminary duties of coupling and 

 depositing of eggs), there are very few instances recorded 

 in which the sociality of insect life continues longer than the 

 early portion of the larva state ; and the reason of this is very 

 obvious : in the former, food is obtained from a distance, not 

 by the objects themselves which are benefited thereby, but 

 by the winged neuters ; whereas in the latter, where the in- 

 sects are compelled to seek their own food, the supply in the 

 immediate vicinity of a brood is soon consumed ; and then 

 each insect, goaded by its own urgent wants, which supersede 

 the mere circumstance of its having been reared from an egg 

 placed in immediate conjunction with a mass of other eggs, 

 becomes its own provider, and finds its way to the most con- 

 genial spot. But this is not the universal case, since there 

 are many caterpillars which have the instinct to enclose them- 

 selves in a common awning of silk, and in which they remain 

 for a great length of time, making excursions to various parts 

 of the tree or plant upon which they are found. 



In respect, therefore, to the circumstances connected with 

 their social habits, insects found associated together may be 

 divided into two groups: — 



1. Those in which the duties of the community consist in 

 the education of the young progeny ; these duties being per- 

 formed by neuters. 



2. Those in which the only social tie consists in a commu- 

 nity of habitation, and in which a share of the duty of con- 

 structing such habitation falls upon each individual. 



In the first of these groups we find, as might be at once ex- 

 pected, a more perfect moral economy, if we may employ such a 

 term ; the habitation being generally of a most beautiful and re- 

 gular construction, and the cells in which the young are placed 

 and educated, contiguous to each other, and generally closed. 

 This latter circumstance will be sufficient to show that the in- 

 sects, during their early states, must necessarily be confined, and 

 incapable of any thing else than a kind of preparation for a 

 social state, being reared in the midst of their future associates ; 

 and for this end we find an adaptation of structure possessed 

 by these immature insects : being destitute of legs, they are 

 unable to make any escape from the place of their birth until 

 their acquirement of organs of flight. In the second group of 

 social insects the reverse of all this takes place : for the very 

 support of the community, it is requisite that each individual 

 should, throughout the continuance of its social state, be 

 provided with locomotive organs, without which, of course, 

 it would be impossible for it to assist in the construction and 



