Care of the Young in the Animal Kingdom, 178 



as worker-ants do by devouring their own eggs ; for, 

 morality presupposes reason and free-will, reflection 

 and consciousness of duty, all of which are wanting 

 throughout the animal kingdom, being the exclusive 

 privilege of man. 



That animals in caring for their young are not led 

 by reason, but only by sensitive emotions and repre- 

 sentations, becomes evident especially from the phe- 

 nomena of adoption in the animal kingdom. There- 

 fore these shall form the subject of the following 

 section. 



3. Adoption Instincts in the Animal Kingdom. 



The tendency to adopt the offspring of strangers 

 is shown by all those animals which, to preserve their 

 species, are forced to bestow great care on their own 

 progeny. This tendency is found among ants not 

 only with regard to the eggs, larvae and pupae of 

 other colonies of their own species or of allied species, 

 but also with regard to members of altogether dif- 

 ferent orders of insects, living in their communities. 

 These adoption instincts are responsible for the mixed 

 colonies of slave-making ants, the robbed pupae of the 

 slave-species being nursed as carefully as others, either 

 by the masters or by the slaves already present in the 

 nest. To the same instinct of adoption must be 

 referred the care bestowed by the ants on their gen- 

 uine guests or other nest-mates belonging to different 

 orders of insects, but above all, the solicitude 

 with which they rear the larvae of certain beetles 

 (Lomechusa, Atemeles, Xenodusa) and the eggs of 

 several kinds of plantlice. The adjoining illustration 



