PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 341 



I shall not detain you longer by prefatory remarks from the amusing 

 scene to which I am eager to introduce you ; but the following observa- 

 tions of M. P. Huber on this subject are so just and striking, that I cannot 

 refrain from copying them. 



" The history of insects that live in solitude consists of their genera- 

 tion, their peculiar habits, the metamorphoses they undergo ; their manner 

 of life under each successive form ; the stratagems for the attack of their 

 enemies, and the skill with which they construct their habitation ; but 

 that of insects which form numerous societies is not confined to some 

 remarkable proceedings, to some peculiar talent ; it offers new relations, 

 which arise from common interest, from the equality or superiority of rank, 

 from the part which each member supports in the society ; — and all these 

 relations suppose a connection between the different individuals of which 

 it consists that can scarcely exist but by the intervention of language : for 

 such may be called every mode of expressing their wishes, their wants, 

 and even their ideas, if that name may be given to the impulses of 

 instinct. It would be difficult to explain in any other way that concur- 

 rence of all wills to one end, and that species of harmony which the 

 whole of their institution exhibits." 



The great end of the societies of insects being the rapid multiplication 

 of the species. Providence has employed extraordinary means to secure 

 the fulfilment of this object, by creating a particular order of individuals 

 in each society, which, freed from sexual pursuits, may give themselves 

 wholly to labor, and thus absolve the females from every employment but 

 that of furnishing the society from time to time with a sufficient supply of 

 eggs to keep up the population to its proper standard. In the case of the 

 Termites, the office of working for the society, as these insects belong to 

 an order whose metamorphosis is semi-complete, devolves upon the larvae ; 

 the neuters, unless these should prove to be the larva; of males, being the 

 soldiers of the community. 



From this circumstance perfect societies may be divided into two classes ; 

 the first including those whose workers are larva, and the second those 

 whose workers are neuters} The white ants belong to the former of 

 these classes, and the social Hymenoptera to the latter. 



Before I begin with the history of the societies of white ants, I must 

 notice a remark that has been made applying to societies in general — 

 that numbers are essential to the full development of the instinct of 

 social animals. This has been observed by Bonnet with respect to the 

 beaver^ ; by Reaumur of the hive-bee ; and by M. P. Huber of the 

 humble-bee.^ Amongst hymenopterous social insects, however, the 

 observation seems not universally applicable, but only under particular 

 circumstances ; for in incipient societies of ants, humble-bees, and wasps, 

 one female lays the foundation of them at first by herself, and the first 

 brood of neuters that is hatched is very small. 



I have on a former occasion given you some account of the devastation 



1 I employ occasionally the term neuters, though it is not perfectly proper, for the sake of 

 convenience ; — strictly speaking, they may rather be regarded as imperfect or sterile females. 

 Yet certainly, as the imperfection of their organization unfits them for sexual purposes, the 

 term neuter is not absolutely improper. * CEuv. ix, 163. 



* M. P. Huber in Linn. Trans, vi. 256. Reaum. v. 



29* 



