Community Life in the Animal Kingdom. 



stmctive automatons, or even as unperceptive "reflex 

 machines" ! 



Yet, neither in ants nor in any other animals, are 

 co-operation and division of labor such as to become 

 mutual, individual assistance, as is the case with man. 

 The same object attracts the attention of several indi- 

 viduals and leads them to busy themselves about it, 

 each in its own way. Working in company is due 

 partly to the similarity of instinctive dispositions in the 

 single ants, partly to the instinct of imitation. H. v. 

 Ihering refers to this in the case of the Brazilian leaf- 

 cutting ants (Atta), and has pointed out the psycho- 

 logical importance of this difference as it exists 

 between societies of animals and man. 1 



Everybody knows that not only the higher mam- 

 mals but also the social insects unite in defending their 

 community and especially their young. To be thor- 

 oughly convinced of this fact you need but step on 

 a wasps' nest or sit down on an ant hill. Indeed, the 

 perfect unity and heroic "self-sacrifice" which social 

 insects and in particular most ants display in defend- 

 ing their nests and their offspring are simply unsur- 

 passed by any other animal. This "unselfishness," 

 this "spirit of sacrifice" and "motherly love" in ani- 

 mals will be referred to in particular, when we come 

 to speak of the breeding and nursing instincts. 



-Higher gregarious animals, e. g., bisons or baboons, 

 do not in defending the community against a common 

 foe defend also the individuals as such. When a 

 hunter lying in ambush has killed one of the herd, the 



1 ) "Die Ameisen von Rio Grande do Sul," in "Berliner Entomo- 

 logische Zeitschrift," 1894, 3d issue, p. 346. 

 3 



