Ants. 41 



battles are single combats, like those of the Homeric 

 heroes. Such species as the yellow Meadow Ant 

 represent a distinctly higher type of social life ; they 

 show more skill in architecture, may literally be said 

 to have domesticated certain species of aphides, and 

 their condition may be compared to the pastoral 

 stage of human progress to the races which live 

 on the produce of their flocks and herds. Their 

 communities are more numerous ; they act much 

 more in concert ; their battles are not mere single 

 combats, for they know how to act in combination. 

 I am disposed to hazard the conjecture that they 

 will gradually exterminate the mere hunting species, 

 just as savages disappear before more advanced 

 races. Lastly, the agricultural, nations may be 

 compared with the harvesting ants. 



Thus there seem to be three principal types, offer- 

 ing a curious analogy to the three great phases the 

 hunting, pastoral, and agricultural stages in the 

 history of human development. 



