56 OUR HOUSEHOLD INSECTS 



insects, that is, they form large communities, which are 

 something more than mere collections of many indivi- 

 duals of the same species living in close proximity to 

 one another (in which case they would be called grega- 

 rious, but not social) ; they form well-organised societies, 

 the members of which share a common dwelling, and 

 contribute to the common well-being by their united 

 exertions in erecting or excavating the abode, in pro- 

 viding the common stock of food,- and in rearing the 

 young. Insects which manifest this social instinct ex- 

 hibit th^s further peculiarity that the species is consti- 

 tuted not of two, but of three distinct factors, which are 

 frequently called males, females, and neuters, though the 

 last-mentioned are more suitably denominated workers. 

 As far as British insects are concerned, the only true 

 social species are ants, certain wasps, the humble bees, 

 and the hive bee ; and it is only in these that the three 

 so-called sexes are found. 



There is nothing comparable to the worker in any 

 other British insects, whether Hymenopterous or other- 

 wise. In the highest development of the social com- 

 munity, such as is met with in the hive bee, the males 

 and females are simply concerned with the propagation 

 of the species, whilst the various labours of the community 

 are performed by the workers, who are themselves, as a 

 rule, incapable of reproducing their kind, being a kind 

 of abortive females. Now, in the ants, the males and 

 females are, primarily at any rate, winged, but the 

 workers are always wingless ; moreover, the males and 

 workers are usually smaller than the females, sometimes 

 very much so, and the workers are usually also smaller 

 even than the males. The males and females appear in 

 the late summer or autumn, and the former perish after 

 pairing, so that their period of perfect existence is a 



