PACKAKD.] THE SOCIAL LIFE OF INSECTS. 32i 



12, Tko Social Life ni Insects, 



MANY of the lower animals, from being hatclied from 

 the same mass of eggs, live in broods and arc grega- 

 rious J or certain animals, like the coral polyps, some 

 ascidians, and moss-animals, are compound, with even, as in 

 the latter, possibly a common nervous sj'stem, forming a 

 colonial system of organs which simultaneously minister to 

 the wants of the whole community ; but though such animals 

 are called social, the term is a misnomer. 



A true sociability exists for the first time, rising in the 

 scale of life, among the wliite ants. Here one set of indi- 

 viduals directly minister to the wants of others ; all are 

 dominated by their interest and devotion to tlie head of the 

 colony, the queen, and all work together for the common 

 good of the entire community. 



Let us turn again to Smeathman's work for a general view 

 of the in-door life of this busy people, this model republic, 

 whose domes rose above the tall reeds of the low Guinea 

 coast centuries before Plato wrote his "Republic." 



"Of every species," says Smeathman, "there are three 

 orders : first, the working insects, which, for brevity, I shall 

 generally call labourers; next, the fighting ones, or soldiers, 

 which do no kind of labour ; and last of all, the winged ones, 

 or iierfect insects, which are male and female, and capaljle 

 of propagation. These might very oppositely be called the 

 nobility or gentry, for they neither labour, nor toil, nor fight, 

 being quite incapable of either, and almost of self-defence. 

 These only are capable of being elected kings or queens ; 

 and nature has so orderetl it, that they emigrate within a 

 few weeks after they are elevated to this state, and either 

 establish new kingdoms, or perish within a day or two." 

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