NEUTER INSECTS. 25 



use-inheritance, which becomes more and more 

 important as a factor of evolution as we advance 

 from the vegetable world and the lower grades 

 of animal life to the more complex activities, 

 tastes, and habits of the higher organizations 

 (preface, and p. 74). But there happens to be a 

 tolerably clear proof that such changes as the 

 evolution of complicated structures and habits 

 and social instincts can take place independently 

 of use-inheritance. The wonderful instincts of the 

 working bees have apparently been evolved 

 (at least in all their later social complications 

 and developments) without the aid of use- 

 inheritance nay, in spite of its utmost opposition. 

 Working bees, being infertile " neuters," cannot 

 as a rule transmit their own modifications and 

 habits. They are descended from countless 

 generations of queen bees and drones, whose habits 

 have been widely different from those of the 

 workers, and whose structures are dissimilar in 



