3EP 10- 1918 



A STUDY OF SO^IE ANT LARV^, WITH A CONSIDERA- 

 TION OF THE ORIGIN AND MEANING OF THE 

 SOCIAL HABIT AMONG INSECTS.^ 



By WILLIAM MORTON WHEELER. 

 (Read April ig, igi8.) 



The care lavished by ants on their brood is a matter of such fre- 

 quent and easy observation that it has always excited wonder and 

 comment. When a colony is disturbed at the height of the breeding 

 season the brood is at once seized and carried to a place of safety, 

 and when more closely observed in artificial nests the behavior of 

 the workers is seen to be very largely a constant round of the four 

 diflferent activities of feeding, licking, transporting and defending the 

 young. Swammerdam says in that wonderful volume, the " Biblia 

 Naturae" (1737-1738) : "Incredible uropyrj et cura Formicse educant 

 summamque dant operam, ne vel tantillum quod spectet eorum Ver- 

 miculorum educationem atque nutritionem omittant " — " with in- 

 credible affection and care the ants bring up their vermicules and 

 omit not the least thing appertaining to their education and nurture." 

 He intentionally uses the word aTopyrj, from the verb o-Tcpyetv, to 

 express bis belief that love or affection impels the ant to care for 

 her young, since there is no Latin equivalent for a term which to 

 the Greek meant the affection of the members of a human family 

 for one another as distinguished from other forms of " tender 

 feeling."- And observers since Swammerdam seem uniformly to 

 have agreed with him, though more modern writers often use such 

 terms as " care of the brood " as more suited to the present colorless 

 and noncommittal stage of natural history. 



Now it must be conceded that Swammerdam's statement calls 



1 Contributions from the Entomological Laboratory of the Bussey Insti- 

 tution, Harvard University. No. 147. 



- Plato in the " Laws," 754B, uses the verb in its typical Greek sense 

 when he says : irals arkpyei re Kai (rrkpytTai vwo tGiv yevv-rjaavTOiv. 



PROG. AMER. PHIL. SOC, VOL. LVII. U, AUGUST 8, I918. 



293 



