INSTINCT OF INSECTS. SZ 
honey, that the bees betook themselves to the plan so suc- 
cessfully adopted for the security of their remaining trea- 
sures ; so that reason taught by experience, seems to have 
called into action their dormant instinct?. 
If it be thus probable that reason has some influence 
upon the actions of insects, which must be mainly regarded 
as instinctive, the existence of this faculty is still more evi- 
dent in numerous traits of their history where instinct is 
little if at all concerned. An insect is taught by its in- 
stincts the most unerring means to the attainment of cer- 
tain ends; but these ends, as I have already had occa- 
sion more than once to remark, are limited in number, 
and such only as are called for by its wants in a state of 
nature. We cannot reasonably suppose insects to be 
gifted with instincts adapted for occasions that are never 
likely to happen. If therefore we find them, in these 
extraordinary and improbable emergencies, still availing 
themselves of the means apparently best calculated for 
ensuring their object ;—and if in addition they seem in 
some cases to gain knowledge by experience ; if they can 
communicate information to each other; and if they are 
endowed with memory—it appears impossible to deny that 
they are possessed of reason.—I shall now produce facts 
in proof of each of these positions ; not by any means all 
that might be adduced, but a few of the most striking. 
that occur to me. 
First, then, insects often in cases not likely to be pro- 
vided for by instinct, adopt means evidently designed for 
effecting their object. 
a Huber, ii. 289—. 
