THE SOCIAL INSECTS 



The subject is, however, still very little explored and there 

 are many details to clear up. Besides the honey bee, some 

 ants also react to the plane of polarised light. 



The development of communication in the honey bee is 

 clearly an enormous advance in social organisation. Although 

 it was claimed earlier that social life starts when any female 

 looks after the young of one of her sisters, there is no com- 

 parison between the slight extension of normal nursing which 

 this involves and the process of conveying topographical 

 information. Moreover, there is no reason to think that we 

 have more than crossed the threshold of an immense new 

 field, since most of the more striking discoveries in it have 

 been made since 1940. 



18 



