GOVERNMENT OF INSECT COMMUNITIES, 293 



merchants, warriors, overseers, or counsellors, as in 

 India, according to Arrian. 



Though this doctrine, however, as far as regards 

 mankind, is contrary to universal observation, it is 

 strictly true in the case of social insects, which, as 

 soon as they arrive at maturity, are invariably en- 

 dowed with the same powers, unimprovable also, so 

 far as we are aware, by any mode of management 

 or of instruction. A spider, the moment it issues 

 from the maternal nest, can spin a web as neatly as 

 it can ever afterwards do during the experience of a 

 long life; and we have just been observing a worker 

 ant {Myrmica rubra) which had begun to move 

 about for the first time, and still wore the pale hue 

 peculiar to this species in infancy, set to work in re- 

 moving rubbish and assisting to place the pupae of 

 the formicary with as much dexterity and skill as its 

 old, experienced, dark-coloured compatriots.* 



Human society is united chiefly by the bonds of 

 mutual protection and assistance, the latter leading 

 to the multifarious arrangements of the divisions of 

 labour; but in the case of insects, as has been well 

 remarked by Kirby and Spence, the great end 

 being the 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 labour, 

 and thus absolve the females from every employ- 

 ment 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.'! Yet it is pro- 

 per to repeat, that notwithstanding all which has 

 hitherto been discovered respecting social insects, we 

 are still much in the dark as to many important 

 points. ^ The more I am engaged,' says Bonnet, 



* J. R. t Intr. ii, 30. 



VOL. XII. 25* 



