538 INSTINCT OF INSECTS. 
snuff! instead of dung; for in these instances the smell seems so clearly . 
the guide, that it even leads into error. But what connection between. 
sensation and instinct do we see in the conduct of the working-bees, which 
fabricate some of the cells in a comb larger than others, expressly to con- 
tain the eggs and future grubs of drones, though these eggs are not laid by 
themselves, and are still in the ovaries of the queen? So we may plausibly 
enough conjecture that the fury with which, in ordinary circumstances, at 
a certain period of the year, the working-bees are inspired towards the 
drones, is the effect of some disagreeable smell or emanation proceeding 
from them at that particular time : but how can we explain, on similar 
grounds, the fact that ina hive deprived of a queen, no massacre of the 
drones takes place? Lastly, to omit here a hundred other instances, as 
many of them will be subsequently adverted to, if we may with some show 
of reason suppose that it is the sensation of heat which causes bees to 
swarm, yet what possible conception can we form of its being bodily 
sensations that lead bees to send out scouts in search of a hive suitable for 
the new colony several days before swarming? 
After these observations on the nature of instinct generally, I pass on to 
contrast in several particulars the instincts of insects with those of other 
animals ; and thus to bring together some remarkable instances of the 
former which have not hitherto been laid before you, as well as to deduce 
from some of those already related inferences to which it did not fall in 
with my design before to direct your attention. This contrast may be 
conveniently made under the three heads of the exquisiteness of their in- 
stincts, their number, and their extraordinary development. 
The instincts of by far the majority of the superior animals are of a 
very simple kind, only directing them to select suitable food; to pro- 
pagate their species; to defend themselves and their young from harm ;, 
to express their sensations by various vocal modulations; and to a few 
other actions which need not be particularised. Others of the larger 
animals, in addition to these simpler instinctive propensities, are gifted 
with more extensive powers: storing up food for their winter consump- 
tion, and: building nests or habitations for their young, which they carefully 
feed and tend. 
All these instincts are common to insects, a great proportion of which 
are in like manner confined to these. But a very considerable number of 
this class are endowed with instincts of an ewquisiteness to which the higher 
animals can lay no claim. What bird or fish, for example, catches its 
prey by means of nets as artfully woven and as admirably adapted to their 
purposes as any that ever fisherman or fowler fabricated? Yet such nets 
are constructed by the race of spiders. What beast of prey thinks of 
digging a pitfall in the track of the animals which serve it for food, and at 
the bottom of which it conceals itself, patiently waiting until some unhappy 
victim is precipitated down the sides of its cavern? Yet this is done by 
the ant-lion and another insect. Or, to omit the endless instances fur- 
nished by wasps, ants, the Termites, &c., what animals can be adduced 
which, like the hive-bee, associating in societies, build regular cities com- 
posed of cells formed with geometrical precision, divided into dwellings 
1 Dr. Zinken genannt Sommer says, that if in August and September a snuft-box 
be left open, it will be seen to be frequented by the common house-fly (Muscu domes- 
tica), the eggs of which will be found to have been deposited amongst the snuff. 
Germar, Mag. der Ent, I, ii, 189. 
