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 ffistory):—‘ 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 
