184 
Psyche 
[September 
to a great extent, form separate homogeneous societies. The 
second type produces a looser heterogeneous society of 
which separate families are but the basic units. The insect 
society depends upon large numbers of offspring produced 
by individual females; the human society depends upon a 
large number of females producing few offsprings. This 
distinction is primarily biological, hence fundamental. 
There are two ways in which large numbers of offspring 
can be produced by a single female. One is by the over- 
development of the ovaries, and the laying of a great number 
of eggs. (Queen of Termes bellicosus ; “she has laid an egg 
every three minutes for the past four years,” Wheeler, 1928, 
a total of almost a million) 1 ; the queen honey-bee, Apis 
mellifica, lays about 3500 eggs a day for several weeks at 
the height of the breeding season, Langstroth, 1909. The 
second is by polyembryony, or the development of several 
offspring from the same egg. This is found in a number of 
the higher hymenoptera. (Aphelopus theliae, whose single 
egg produces 40-60 offspring, according to Kornhauser, 
1919 ; Copsidosoma gelechiae , Paracopidosomopis florida- 
nus, Platygaster sp., the first with over 300, the second 
averaging over 1000, and the last 5-36 offspring, which 
Patterson, 1919, believes may develop from single eggs.) 
The method of foetal development in the placental mam- 
mals makes impossible the production of offspring in great 
numbers by a single female. Both the limits of space, (the 
size of the uterus,) and the limits of time, (length of life 
compared with time necessary for foetal development), 
place decided limits to the possible number of offspring. So 
it seems clear that, basically, human and insect societies 
can never be physically homologous. 
In solving the problems of maintenance by the provision 
of food and shelter both human and insect societies exploit 
a trophoporic field. This field is the actual territorial area 
IE. Hegh, 1922, in “Les Termites,” says of T. bellicosus, “qui, d’apres 
Smeathman et Escherich, serait d’au moins trente mille par jour, 
soit dix millions par an et cent millions pour la duree probable de la 
vie de la reine.” I do not understand this disagreement of authorities, 
but an egg every three minutes is 20 an hour, and thus only 480 a 
day. In either case, a large number of eggs is laid. 
