CHAPTER XVII 



INSECT COMMUNITIES 



The vast majority of insects pass their lives in solitude. 

 But exceptions to this rule occur throughout the orders, 

 while among ants, bees, and wasps, and " white ants " or 

 termites, we find co-operative associations which are 

 without parallel in the whole animal kingdom. These 

 must have sprung from small beginnings. The remote 

 ancestors of the hive-bee, that paragon of civic virtues, 

 were doubtless wanderers upon the face of the earth. 

 True, insects have no sagas. No musty chronicles exist 

 to tell us how they fared in long-past ages. But in the 

 lives of insects to-day we may read, if we will, some record 

 of their history. 



Social life in its most simple form is typified by many 

 caterpillars which weave, by their united effort, a web of 

 silk over their food plant, thus forming a kind of tent 

 which shelters the whole brood. Sometimes these tents 

 are very stoutly wrought, and are tenanted throughout 

 the winter ; or they may be mere booths which are 

 renewed from time to time in accordance with the needs 

 of their inmates. These social caterpillars often display 

 remarkable unity of action. They have set times for feed- 

 ing, for basking in the sun outside their tent, and for 

 resting within its shelter ; and when one individual moves, 

 the rest all follow. The caterpillars of the European pro- 

 cessionary moth (Cnethocampa processiojiea) leave their 

 nest at sundown, and march to their feeding grounds in 

 wedge-shaped order. It is said that the pioneer emits a 



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