CHAPTER V 



HEREDITY 



TTACTS which I have set forth elsewhere 

 -*- prove that certain Dung-beetles 1 make an 

 exception to the rule of paternal indifference 

 — a general rule in the insect world — and 

 know something of domestic cooperation. The 

 father works with almost the same zeal as the 

 mother in providing for the settlement of the 

 family. Whence do these favoured ones de- 

 rive a gift that borders on morality? 



One might suggest the cost of installing the 

 youngsters. Once they have to be furnished 

 with a lodging and to be left the wherewithal 

 to live, is it not an advantage, in the interests 

 of the race, that the father should come to the 

 mother's assistance? Work divided between 

 the two will ensure the comfort which solitary 

 work, its strength overtaxed, would deny. This 

 seems excellent reasoning; but it is much more 



lr The Lunary Copris and the Bison Oritis, the essay on 

 whom has not yet appeared in English; Minotaurus 

 typhosus, for whom see The Life and Love of the Insect: 

 chap, x; and the Sisyphus, for whom see Social Life in 

 the Insect World: chap. xii. — Translator's Note, 



III 



