CONSTITUTION AND DEVELOPMENT OF TERMITES. 247 
As it is probable that the same explanation is equally ap- 
plicable to other Hymenoptera, I put aside that order of 
insects to devote myself to another, of remote relationship— 
namely, the Corrodentia, of which the Termitide constitute 
the typical form. But I found myself here in a much less 
cultivated field than that of the Hymenoptera, and it took 
me several years before I was able to see my way. 
In the meantime a school has arisen under Weismann, 
which denies the heredity of acquired characteristics ; this has 
somewhat modified, and perhaps rendered more interesting 
the general questions which have inspired my particular re- 
searches, as I will explain. 
It has been known for many years that the same bee larva 
may develop either into a queen or a worker in accordance 
with the nutriment it receives. Nutrition, therefore, possesses 
a most remarkable influence on the bee’s generative organs, 
and on many other characters correlated with their greater or 
less development (e.g. the faculty of producing wax, or of 
collecting honey, which is possessed by the worker only, and 
not by the queen). This would indicate that the environment 
has a powerful and direct influence on the genitalia, and would 
therefore tend indirectly to show that the much-disputed in- 
heritance of acquired characteristics is a possibility. 
with the fertile male and female ants, and the double sterile plants with the 
neuters of the same community. As with the varieties of the stock, so with 
social insects, selection has been applied to the family, and not to the indi- 
vidual, for the sake of gaining a serviceable end.”  [‘Origin of Species,’ 
ed. 6, p. 230. The whole chapter should be consulted.] But it may be 
objected that the difference between the queen and worker forms is far more 
profound than that between the simple and double stocks. 
Biichner [* Aus dem Geisteslebens der Thiere,’ translated under the title 
‘Mind in Animals,’ London, 1881], on the other hand, thinks that the 
explanation of the phenomenon should be found partly in atavism, and partly— 
as far, that is, as regards the marvellous instincts—in the instruction which the 
young receive from the colony. That atavism certainly plays a part in instinct 
is demonstrated ad evidentiam by a fact discovered by myself. It is known 
that certain silkworms become pup and moths without spinning a cocoon. 
Now my experiments show that the offspring of such moths may spin perfectly 
constructed cocoons. 
