SOCIAL INSECTS 113 



The social habits of ANTS are even more complex than those 

 of Bees and Wasps, and some account has already been given 

 of the way in which the members of certain species procure and 

 store food (see vol. ii, pp. 103 and 206). There is no more 

 fascinating department in the whole realm of natural history than 

 the study of ant life, for these little creatures live in a wonder- 

 land which is all their own. The elaboration of some of their 

 communities is very considerable, and the welfare of the individual 

 is rigorously subordinated to the interests of the species. Some 

 of the more salient points are thus ably summarized by Sharp 

 (in The Cambridge Natural History)'. " Observation has revealed 

 most remarkable phenomena in the lives of these insects. Indeed, 

 we can scarcely avoid the conclusion that they have acquired in 

 many respects the art of living together in societies more perfectly 

 than our own species has, and that they have anticipated us in 

 the acquisition of some of the industries and arts that greatly 

 facilitate social life. The lives of individual ants extend over 

 a considerable number of years in the case of certain species 

 at any rate, so that the competence of the individual may be 

 developed to a considerable extent by exercise; and one genera- 

 tion may communicate to a younger one by example the arts of 

 living by which it has itself profited. The prolonged life of ants, 

 their existence in the perfect state at all seasons, and the highly 

 social life they lead are facts of the greatest biological importance, 

 and are those that we should expect to be accompanied by greater 

 and wider competence than is usually exhibited by Insects. There 

 can indeed be little doubt that ants are really not only the 

 * highest ' structurally or mechanically of all insects, but also the 

 most efficient. There is an American saying that the ant is ruler 

 of Brazil. We must add a word of qualification ; the competence 

 of the ant is not like that of man. It is devoted to the welfare 

 of the species rather than to that of the individual, which is, as 

 it were, sacrificed or specialized for the benefit of the community. 

 The distinctions between the sexes in their powers or capacities 

 are astonishing, and those between the various forms of one 

 sex are also great. The difference between different species is 

 extreme; we have, in fact, the most imperfect forms of social 

 evolution coexisting, even locally, with the most evolute. These 

 facts render it extremely difficult for us to appreciate the ant; the 

 limitations of efficiency displayed by the individual being in some 



VOL. IV. 102 



