Community Life in the Animal Kingdom. 15 



in other words, by bodily difference in the individuals 

 of a colony. Ant states are organically divided into 

 fixed groups of different "castes/' possessing different 

 corporal and psychic qualities. These castes take their 

 origin from the peculiar organic development of ants ; 

 they depend on laws of negative growth, not on the *^ 

 intelligence and free will of individuals, as do the 

 classes of human society. By far the majority of 

 members of ant colonies consist, of course, of wing- 

 less neuters, which go by the name of "workers" or 

 simply "ants." These workers are a secondary form 

 of the female, the ovaries being stunted, while brain 

 and instincts are all the more highly developed.^ 

 With many ants, especially with the genera Pheidole, 

 Pheidologeton, Eciton, Colobopsis, etc., the workers 

 are again divided into two more or less strictly sep- 

 arated castes differing in bodily structure, namely 

 workers proper and soldiers, the latter possessing a 

 comparatively huge head and formidable jaws. The 

 wingless workers and soldiers are entrusted with the 

 colony's social welfare; it is their duty to build the 

 nest, to tend the young, to gather provisions and to 

 defend the community against hostile invaders, whilst 

 the winged males and females attend to the propaga- 

 tion of the species. After having been fertilized, 

 which is generally done in the air during their nuptial 

 flight, the females lose their wings and become 

 "queens," either founding new colonies or being taken 

 back by workers into their old nest for oviposition. 

 The basis, therefore, of the so-called political con- 



^) Hence they cannot be simply called "stunted females, 

 than the workers among bees. 



