WASPS, ANTS AND BEES 



205 



of larvae of insects are among the ants' most liked edibles, says 

 Miss Field. 



The extremely highly developed instincts of the social 

 Hymenoptera (social wasps, social bees and ants) have led to 

 their being called the most intelligent of insects. But as far as 

 our present knowledge goes we are not justified in attributing 

 any intelligence, in the strict meaning of the term, to any 

 insects. Their behavior is practically wholly controlled by 

 inherited instincts, which fit them to go through a certain life 



FIG. 93. Plan of the Fielde ant-nest, ten inches by six inches, a, En- 

 trance and exit to food-rooms d); 2, nursery; 3, sponge-room; b, screens; 

 m, passage. 



routine very effectively, but which leave them helpless if by 

 any chance they are submitted to wholly new conditions. 

 Much experimental work has been done with the wasps, bees 

 and ants, to test their capacities for successful modifications of 

 their behavior, and the weight of authority is against admitting 

 their possession of real reason or intelligence. In this connec- 

 tion the books of Fabre, the French "Homer of insect life," 

 those of the Peckhams, American students of solitary and 

 social wasps, and of Wheeler, the American student of ants, 

 should be read by students. They contain the most fascinat- 

 ing stories of insect life which can be written. 



