INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 513 
development of a new instinct suited for the exigency, 
however incomprehensible to us the manner of its excite- 
ment may appear. 
II. Such, then, are the exquisiteness, the number, and 
the extraordinary development of the instincts of insects. 
But is instinct the sole guide of their actions? Are they 
in every case the blind agents of irresistible impulse ? 
These queries, I have already hinted, cannot in my 
opinion be replied to in the affirmative; and I now pro- 
ceed to show, that though instinct is the chief guide of 
insects, they are endowed also with no inconsiderable 
portion of reason. 
Some share of reason is denied by few philosophers of 
the present day to the larger animals. But its existence 
has not generally ‘(except by those who reject instinct al- 
together) been recognised in insects; probably on the 
ground that, as the proportions of reason and of instinct 
seem to co-exist in an inverse ratio, the former might be 
expected to be extinct in a class in which the latter is 
found in such perfection. This rule, however, though 
it may hold good in man, whose instincts are so few and 
imperfect, and whose reason is so pre-eminent, is far from 
being confirmed by an extended survey of the classes of 
animals generally. Many quadrupeds, birds, and fishes, 
with instincts apparently not very acute, do not seem to 
have their place supplied by a proportionably superior 
share of reason: and insects, as I think the facts I have 
to adduce will prove, though ranking so low in the scale 
of creation, seem to enjoy as great a degree of reason as 
many animals of the superior classes, yet in meer 
with instincts much more numerous and exquisite, 
Cc 
VOL. II. apc 
