1929] 
Human and Insect Societies 
183 
3. The perpetration of the group. 
a. Dependent upon the effectiveness with which the 
group is maintained. 
In neither man nor insects can we speak of the creation 
of the group in the strict sense. The groups, or societies, 
are being constantly re-created, or perpetuated. In the 
insect society perhaps, we come nearer to society creation, 
for, regarding each colony as a separate society, it is begun, 
in the termites, when a male and female start a new nest; 
in the ants, when, by various methods, a fertilized female 
succeeds in founding a colony, and in the bees, when a 
swarm occurs. But in most instances, even here, there is a 
mixing of colonies, since in the nuptial flights of social 
insects a certain amount of cross-breeding takes place, i.e., 
between males and females of different colonies, so we can, 
to a certain extent, regard insect society as being much 
broader than the single colony. 
The problems of maintenance and perpetuation are, to a 
great degree, the same. In order to provide food and shelter 
there must be a sufficient number of individuals to carry 
out the work of provision. In order to have a sufficient 
number of individuals to provide for the group, food and 
shelter must be efficiently supplied. Since both the produc- 
tion of offspring and the provision of food are necessary to 
maintain a society it is fruitless to discuss which is the 
more important. 
In reproduction we find that there are two general 
methods found in the various types of societies. Both are 
effective, and each is apparently the best for the society in 
which it is found. There may be developed a special ma- 
chinery for reproduction, i.e., a reproductive caste, whose 
contribution to the community is solely offspring. Or we 
may have no special reproductive caste, but the production 
of a few offspring by each, (or as is actually the case, by 
most), of the group units. (Group units, in speaking of re- 
production in higher animals, are obviously not individuals, 
but are composed of two individuals of the opposite sex.) 
The first type produces numerous large families which, 
