CHAPTER X 
INTELLIGENCE IN INSECTS 
“Si tous les actes instinctifs des Insectes portaient constamment 
V’empreinte évident d’une nécessité aveugle, il y aurait beaucoup 
moins A admirer en eux qu’on ne le fait communément. Ce qui excite 
surtout notre surprise, c’est que fréquemment ils s’accommodent aux 
circonstances, et que leurs actes prennent alors une telle apparence 
de raison, qu’il faut y regarder de prés pour ne pas les attribuer a 
une véritable combinasion d’idées.—LacoRDAIRE, Introduction @ 
U Entomologie. 
In the insects manifestations of intelligent behavior are 
much more common and more striking than in the crustacea 
and molluscs. It is a general rule that the degree of intel- 
ligence in these forms runs parallel with the degree of com- 
plexity and perfection of their instincts and with the degree 
of development of the nervous system and sense organs. 
Among primitive groups of insects the intelligence manifested 
is very slight, while it reaches its culmination in the hymenop- 
tera whose instincts have long been objects of wonder and 
admiration. 
The power of associating certain appearances with food 
might be expected to occur among the earliest manifestations 
of intelligence, and we find many illustrations of this ability 
even among the more primitive insects. Miss Sondheim 
kept a damsel fly larva in a dish of water, where it was 
frequently fed. At first the larva scuttled away in fear 
whenever Miss Sondheim approached, but after a time its 
timidity was overcome. Later it became so tame that it 
would take flies out of her hand, and came toward her 
whenever she approached. Finally it would come out of the 
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