CHAPTER V 
ADAPTATION FOR THE SPECIES 
THE strife, as we have described it thus far, is a 
purely selfish struggle. Every point gained is a point 
favorable to the welfare of the individual animal. But 
nature is uncommonly careless of the individual unless 
the advantage gained is also of use to the species as a 
whole. Very often the life of an animal ceases when 
provision has been made for its young. The male 
garden spider may have a long and dangerous court- 
ship, in which the uncertain temper of his ladylove 
may lead her to bite off four or five of his eight legs. 
But her ingratitude is not yet complete. He may have 
barely accomplished his desperate purpose of fertiliz- 
ing her eggs at all hazards, when she ends the process 
by eating him. The male bumblebee fertilizes the fe- 
male in the late summer and then dies. She does not 
lay her eggs before the next season. So it happens 
that no bumblebee ever sees its own father, and no 
father bumblebee ever sees his own children. In the 
honey bee the male, which has been fortunate enough 
to fertilize the queen, pays for his honor by death 
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