THE EVOLUTION OF ANTS 



filiform. This singular modification, too, is seen in several 

 difi'erent genera in the tropics of both hemispheres. Finally, 

 attention may be called to the development of a peculiar 

 beard, consisting of long, forward-sweeping hairs on the 

 lower surface of the head in several unrelated genera of 

 desert ants. The hairs are rather stiff and form a kind of crate 

 or basket, in which the ants carry up the dust oi sand that 

 they loosen while they are excavating their burrows. To 

 account for all these exquisitely adapted forms or features 

 there are only two hypotheses: either they have been devel- 

 oped gradually, in response to the environment in which the 

 insects have long been living, or they were created at the 

 same time as their possessors by a being having a prevision of 

 their ultimate function. If the latter hypothesis is accepted 

 we can only marvel at the Creator's meticulous solicitude for 

 the welfare of ants and His failure to provide adequate pro- 

 phylactic measures against the many common diseases and 

 calamities that have for thousands of years decimated the 

 paragons of His creation. 



Of course, the conclusions we have reached in regard to 

 evolution among ants, though based on many more observa- 

 tions than those briefly cited here, relate nevertheless to a 

 very small part of the animal kingdom. But during the last 

 sixty years essentially the same conclusions have been 

 reached by hundreds of other students, each of whom has 

 investigated some particular group of organisms; and the 

 combined labors of all these workers may be said to cover the 

 whole extent of the plant and animal kingdoms, man included. 

 Are we to suppose that this conclusion, unanimously reached 

 by so many men who have devoted their lives to minute and 

 conscientious observation and experiment, is the result of 

 some marvelous unanimous hallucination, and that the truth 

 lies with those who have given little or no study to the organic 



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