iQoS] The Polymorphism of Ants 69 



that mere artificial dealation at once alters the instincts of the 

 cjueen, probably through a stimulus analogous to that which leads 

 to the atrophy of a muscle when its nerve is severed, and in the 

 case under consideration leads to the degeneration of the wing- 

 muscles and to changes in the ovaries. In the mermithergates 

 and pseudogynes we also have peculiarities of behavior which 

 are attributable to peculiar physiological states. Similarly, 

 nutricial castration may be said to be a physiological state 

 resembling that of hunger. We may conclude, therefore, that 

 the worker, both in its ontogenetic and phylogenetic develop- 

 ment, is through and through a hunger- form, inured to pro- 

 tracted fasting. Miss Fielde has shown (1904) that the work- 

 ers of Camponotus americanus may live nearly nine months 

 without food, which is as long as the much larger and more 

 vigorous queens are known to fast while establishing their col- 

 onies. The larvae of ants, too, are known to remain alive in 

 the nests for months without growing. And even when food 

 is abundant the workers appropriate very little of it to their 

 individual maintenance, but distribute it freely among their 

 sister workers, the brood and queen. It is not improbable, 

 moreover, that the single instinct peculiar to workers, the instinct 

 to leave the nest and forage, is the direct result of a chronic 

 state of hunger. 



