328 HALF HOURS WITH INSECTS. [Packard. 



esis, but on reflection Ave cannot account for their origin 

 witliout supposing that tliey have resulted through natural 

 laws such as have acted in building up human societies. 

 And the fact that there are all grades of complexity of social 

 life among the Termites, down to species which are nearly 

 solitary, almost on a par socially with other insects, shows 

 that these clans, powerful from their superiority in numbers 

 and intelligence, have been organized in consequence of pre- 

 eminence in physical and mental qualities in the veiy face 

 of the disorganizing forces of nature. This steady advance 

 seen in certain lines of animal life, the degradation and 

 retrogression in many others, show that there is something 

 working through and above the ordinary laws of nature 

 which evince Infinite Power and Will-force not of the world 

 of matter. 



Fritz Mijller, who has observed the white ants of Brazil, 

 has discovered that besides the four kinds of individuals first 

 made known by Smeathman there are wingless males and 

 females as well as winged ones, so that the complexity of the 

 social life of these insects is still farther increased. 



In a published letter to Mr. Darwin, he remarks: "For 

 some years I have been engaged in studying the natural his- 

 tor}^ of our Termites, of which I have had more than a dozen 

 living species at my disposition. The several species differ 

 much more in their habits and in their anatomy than is gen- 

 erally assumed. In most species there are two sets of 

 neuters, viz., laborers and soldiers ; but in some species 

 {Calotermes Hag.) the laborers, and in others {Anoploter- 

 mes) the soldiers, are wanting. With respect to these neu- 

 ters I have come to the same conclusion as that arrived at 

 by Mr. Bates, viz., that, diflTerently from what we see in 

 social Hymenoptera, they are not modified imagos (sterile 

 females), but modified larvae, which undergo no further met- 

 amorphosis. This accounts for the fact first observed by 

 Lespes, that both the sexes are represented among the sterile 



