ORGANIC ADAPTATION 



329 



accordingly by human, and presumably by other enemies also. 

 (Figs. 213, 218.) 



Now, what is the significance of such phenomena of animal 

 coloration and form? This problem has attracted much attention 

 and appears by no means so simple to-day as it did a generation 



Fig. 213. —'Protective mimicry.' A, drone Honey Bee; B, a Bee-fly, 



Eristalis tenax. (From Folsom.) 



ago 



Biologists to-day are not so ready to interpret individual 

 cases as 'protective,' 'aggressive,' 'alluring,' 'confusing,' or 'mi- 

 metic' But nowhere else is the plasticity — adaptability — of or- 

 ganisms better illustrated, and, taken by and large, many such 

 adaptations are of crucial importance in the life and strife of species. 

 Apparently the origin of such adaptive variations must be sought 

 in mutations — the unadaptive mutations being eliminated in the 

 struggle for existence. 



Worker* _ 



Queen Urone 



Fig. 214. — The Honey Bee, Apis mellifwa. (From Bureau of Entomology.) 



The Legs of the Honey Bee. From time immemorial the 

 Honey Bee (Apis mellifwa) has been the subject of wonder and 

 study, and to-day there is no more interesting and instructive ex- 

 ample of adaptation than that exhibited by the Bee in relation to 

 the highly specialized community life of the hive. (Fig. 214.) 



