HEREDITY. 465 



They produce sterile workers and soldiers, sometimes 

 of several forms, although themselves unlike most of 

 their progeny. "This, " says Mr. Ball, " is evidence 

 that inheritance can have no share in the process." He 

 believes that each one of the structural types of the 

 community is produced by the treatment accorded to 

 the young by the workers, each generation for itself. 



As we have seen that the embryonic and paleonto- 

 logic histories distinctly negative the idea that each 

 generation has been produced by itself without inheri- 

 tance, let us endeavor to read the riddle in the light 

 of the knowledge we have gained from paleontology. 

 I assume that the most specialized types, the soldiers, 

 represent the type of the species in Mesozoic and pos- 

 sibly earlier time. They are already known from early 

 Cenozoic formations (Scudder). The process of change 

 into workers and breeders has been degenerative. I 

 suppose, however, that in ants, as in the case of many 

 other animals, slight differences in the supply of nutri- 

 tive energy will prevent or produce these degenerative 

 processes, as it appears to do in the case of the pro- 

 duction of the sexes. (Experiments on lepidopterous 

 larvae have shown that excessive food supply produces 

 females, and deficient supply produces males). In 

 bees the larvae of the female (queen) receives the larg- 

 est food supply ; those of the males less ; and those of 

 the neuters the least of all. How the food supply 

 came to be varied so as to produce the several types 

 in accordance with the exigencies of the community, 

 is a question to be solved by future research. Perhaps 

 it was due to variations in the supplies available at 

 particular times of the year ; and perhaps the ants ul- 

 timately learned the secret, and now practice it intelli- 

 gently. It is enough for my present purpose to have 



