INSECT SOCIETIES 



species which are not social, this overlap need only last until 

 the next generation is self-supporting. In man, social life 

 has developed through the learning of crafts and the handing 

 on of traditions. Thus the great length of childhood in 

 man compared with any other animal has both made a long 

 period available for education and has required, in compen- 

 sation, a relatively long life for the adult. 



Insects, in contrast, seem to depend very little on learning. 

 Their elaborate nests, the hunting territories, and some of 

 their food supplies may, like human traditions, be handed on 

 to the next generation, but would be quite insufficient in 

 themselves to preserve a stable society. The fundamental 

 reason for the greatly extended life of the queen is that she 

 stabilises the whole system by means of her oviposition. 

 Apart from periods of cold weather, no insect society is in a 

 stable condition unless the queen is laying regularly. The 

 whole system of inhibiting unwanted reproduction depends 

 on her, so that the colony usually survives very little longer 

 than the queen. The colonies of termites and of the honey 

 bee which no longer depend on the survival of the original 

 queen are potentially immortal. 



FOOD AND SOCIAL LIFE 



The importance of food in the early stages of social 

 evolution may have been much less in insects than it was in 

 man and some of the other social mammals. In early man and 

 in such animals as wolves, co-operation in hunting must 

 have been one of the original social motives. 



In the social insects co-operation for this purpose is only 

 found in the ants, and in them chiefly in the more specialised 

 types. Wasps never hunt in packs, and bees forage alone, 

 though in the honey bee workers may tell one another where 

 to go. Termites are only rarely hunters and most of them eat 



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