538 INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 



snuff 1 instead of dung; for in these instances the smell seems so clearly 

 the guide, that it even leads into error. But what connection between 

 sensation and instinct do we see in the conduct of the working-bees, which 

 fabricate some of the cells in a comb larger than others, expressly to con- 

 tain the eggs and future grubs of drones, though these eggs are not laid by 

 themselves, and are still in the ovaries of the queen ? So we may plausibly 

 enough conjecture that the fury with which, in ordinary circumstances, at 

 a certain period of the year, the working-bees are inspired towards the 

 drones, is the effect of some disagreeable smell or emanation proceeding 

 from them at that particular time : but how can we explain, on similar 

 grounds, the fact that in a hive deprived of a queen, no massacre of the 

 drones takes place ? Lastly, to omit here a hundred other instances, as 

 many of them will be subsequently adverted to, if we may with some show 

 of reason suppose that it is the sensation of heat which causes bees to 

 swarm, yet what possible conception can we form of its being bodily 

 sensations that lead bees to send out scouts in search of a hive suitable for 

 the new colony several days before swarming? 



After these observations on the nature of instinct generally, I pass on to 

 contrast in several particulars the instincts of insects with those of other 

 animals ; and thus to bring together some remarkable instances of the 

 former which have not hitherto been laid before you, as well as to deduce 

 from some of .those already related inferences to which it did not fall in 

 with my design before to direct your attention. This contrast may be 

 conveniently made under the three heads of the exquisiteness of their in- 

 stincts, their number, and their extraordinary development. 



The instincts of by far the majority of the superior animals are of a 

 very simple kind, only directing them to select suitable food ; to pro- 

 pagate their species j to defend themselves and their young from harm ; 

 to express their sensations by various vocal modulations ; and to a few 

 other actions which need not be particularised. Others of the larger 

 animals, in addition to these simpler instinctive propensities, are gifted 

 with more extensive powers : storing up food for their winter consump- 

 tion, and building nests or habitations for their young, which they carefully 

 feed and tend. 



All these instincts are common to insects, a great proportion of which 

 are in like manner confined to these. But a very considerable number of 

 this class are endowed with instincts of an exquisiteness to which the higher 

 animals can lay no claim. What bird or fish, for example, catches its 

 prey by means of nets as artfully woven and as admirably adapted to their 

 purposes as any that ever fisherman or fowler fabricated ? Yet such nets 

 are constructed by the race of spiders. What beast of prey thinks of 

 digging a pitfall in the track of the animals which serve it for food, and at 

 the bottom of which it conceals itself, patiently waiting until some unhappy 

 victim is precipitated down the sides of its cavern ? Yet this is done by 

 the ant-lion and another insect. Or, to omit the endless instances fur- 

 nished by wasps, ants, the Termites, &c., what animals can be adduced 

 which, like the hive-bee, associating in societies, build regular cities com- 

 posed of cells formed with geometrical precision, divided into dwellings 



1 Dr. Zinken genannt Sommer says, that if in August and September a snuff-box 

 be left open, it will be seen to be frequented by the common house-fly (Musca domes' 

 two), the eggs of which will be found to have been deposited amongst the snuff. 

 Germar, Mag. der Ent. I. ii. 189. 



