216 ANIMAL LIFE 



the most varied methods ; but in their response 

 to the stimulus of race-maintenance, more than in 

 any other performances, insects of the higher classes 

 exhibit a dominant interest. They have brought their 

 several works to high degree of finish, and exercise in 

 doing it such unwearied devotion and skilled instinct 

 as to furnish us with a theme that exhausts our 

 astonishment as it stimulates our wonder. In the 

 choice of nesting site, and the construction of the 

 building, in the storage of suitable food and its re- 

 plenishment, in the division of labour and response to 

 a communal spirit, the social insects have undoubtedly 

 worked out a full and successful scheme of life. There 

 is perhaps no other society where individual interests 

 are so subordinated now in one direction, now in 

 another at the command of a genius that seems to 

 dominate the whole and to declare how the welfare 

 of the race is to be served. 



REFERENCES 



Selection of Mates : Darwin, ' Descent of Man.' Poidton, 

 E. B., ' Colours of Animals ' (Internat. Sci. Series, vol. Ixviii.) 



Peckham, G. W. and E. G., ' Occasional Papers ' (Natural 

 History Society, Wisconsin). Vol. i. 1889. (Spiders.) 



