168 



LAWS OF MULTIPLICATION. 



feeding which the larva of a working Bee has, results in a 

 dwarfing of the adult and an arrested development of the 

 generative organs. Further, we have the fact that the con- 

 dition under which the perfect female, or mother-Bee, goes 

 on, unlike insects in general, laying eggs continuously, is 

 that she has plenty of food brought to her, is kept warm, and 

 goes through no considerable exertion. While, contrariwise, 

 it is to be noted that the infertility of the workers, is asso- 

 ciated with the ceaseless labour of bringing" materials for the 

 combs and building them, as well as the labour of feeding 

 the queen, the larva3, and themselves. 



Ants, and especially some of the tropical kinds, show 

 us these relations in an exaggerated form. The differ- 

 ence of bulk between the fecund and infecund females is 

 immensely greater. The mother- Ant has the reproductive 

 system so enormously developed, that the remainder of her 

 body is relatively insignificant. Entirely incapable of loco- 

 motion, she is unable to deposit her eggs in the places where 

 they are to be hatched ; so that they have to be carried away 

 by the workers as fast as they are extruded. Her life is thus 

 reduced substantially to that of a parasite — an absorption of 

 abundant food supplied gratis, a total absence of expendi- 

 ture, and a consequent excessive rate of genesis. " The 

 queen-ant of the African Termites lays 80,000 eggs in twenty- 

 four hours." 



§ 361. It may be needful to say that these exceptional 

 relations cannot be ascribed to the assigned causes acting 

 alone. The extreme fertility which, among parasites and 

 social insects, accompanies extremely high feeding, and an 

 expenditure reduced nearly to zero, presupposes typical struc- 

 tures and tendencies of suitable kinds ; and these are not 

 directly accounted for. On creatures otherwise organized, 

 unlimited supplies of food and total inactivity are not fol- 

 lowed by such results. There of course requires a consti- 

 tution fitted to the special conditions ; and the evolution of 



