INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 507 



development of a new instinct suited for the exigency, 

 however incomprehensible to us the manner of its excite- 

 ment may appear. 



II. Such, then, are the exquisiteness, the number, and 

 the extraordinary development of the instincts of insects. 

 But is instinct the sole guide of their actions ? Are they 

 m every case the blind agents of irresistible impulse ? 

 These queries, I have already hinted, cannot in my 

 opinion be replied to in the affirmative ; and I now pro- 

 ceed to show, that though instinct is the chief guide of 

 insects, they are endowed also with no inconsiderable 

 portion of reason. 



Some share of reason is denied by few philosophers of 

 the present day to the larger animals. But its existence 

 has not generally (except by those who reject instinct al- 

 together) been recognised in insects : probably on the 

 ground that, as the proportions of reason and of instinct 

 seem to co-exist in an inverse ratio, the former might be 

 expected to be extinct in a class in which the latter is 

 found in such perfection. This rule, however, though 

 it may hold good in man, whose instincts are so few and 

 imperfect, and whose reason is so pre-eminent, is far from 

 being confirmed by an extended survey of the classes of 

 animals generally. Many quadrupeds, birds, and fishes, 

 with instincts apparently not very acute, do not seem to 

 have their place supplied by a proportionably superior 

 share of reason : and insects, as I think the facts I have 

 to adduce will prove, though ranking so low in the scale 

 of creation, seem to enjoy as great a degree of reason as 

 many animals of the superior classes, yet in combination 

 with instincts much more numerous and exquisite. 



