CHAPTER X 

 INTELLIGENCE IN INSECTS 



"Si tons les actes instinctifs des Insectes portaient constamment 

 Tempreinte e'vident d'une necessity aveugle, il y aurait beaucoup 

 moins a admirer en eux qu'on ne le fait communement. Ce qui excite 

 surtout notre surprise, c'est que frequemment ils s'accommodent aux 

 circonstances, et que leurs actes prennent alors une telle apparence 

 de raison, qu'il faut y regarder de pres pour ne pas les attribuer a 

 une veritable combinasion d'idees. LACORDAIRE, Introduction d 

 V Entomologie. 



In the insects manifestations of intelligent behavior are 

 much more common and more striking than in the Crustacea 

 and molluscs. It is a general rule that the degree of intel- 

 ligence in these forms runs parallel with the degree of com- 

 plexity and perfection of their instincts and with the degree 

 of development of the nervous system and sense organs. 

 Among primitive groups of insects the intelligence manifested 

 is very slight, while it reaches its culmination in the hymenop- 

 tera whose instincts have long been objects of wonder and 

 admiration. 



The power of associating certain appearances with food 

 might be expected to occur among the earliest manifestations 

 of intelligence, and we find many illustrations of this ability 

 even among the more primitive bisects. Miss Sondheim 

 kept a damsel fly larva in a dish of water, where it was 

 frequently fed. At first the larva scuttled away hi fear 

 whenever Miss Sondheim approached, but after a tune its 

 timidity was overcome. Later it became so tame that it 

 would take flies out of her hand, and came toward her 

 whenever she approached. Finally it would come out of the 



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