4 
INTRODUCTION. 
sweeping over a host of insects just as a blind impulse ranges through 
a crowd of human beings by means which are certainly not normal or in 
daily use; the emergence of the flying ants suggests a similar blind im¬ 
pulse, an unreasoned compliance with fixed instincts like the blowing up 
of a boiler when certain physical conditions are arrived at; do the ants 
have councils and decide when the nest shall be moved to a new locality, 
or is it simply the common impulse of the community, simultaneously 
born of the same reaction to certain physical conditions ? So wide 
apart are our senses from those of insects, so divergent are our means of 
expression, and the mechanism of our bodies, that no answer can be 
given to these questions; we cannot establish any connection with the 
individuality of insects, we can get no common basis of thought, no pos¬ 
sible means whereby even to 4 4 tame ’ ’ them or to get even so little 
response to our efforts as a tame bird will give. To us, the closest study 
of large numbers of the same species reveals no individuality, nothing 
but a mechanical sameness in a large number ; perhaps this is because 
we cannot get near enough ; to the ordinary man, sheep are sheep 
and while differing in small points are alike ; to the shepherd they are as 
individual as human beings and have a similar mental individuality ; I 
have never seen that this was the case with insects, and none that have 
been kept in activity, fed, cared for and most closely observed, have 
shown more than very small traces of individual mentality or even 
responded to advances. (That this is not the view every author takes 
is evident from the writings of naturalists who state that butterflies in 
particular become tame and welcome their captor’s visits ; but these 
cases are not sufficiently numerous or well authenticated to be valid.) 
It is not unreasonable to consider that, in freedom and living under 
natural surroundings, nearly every insect is solitary; an individual insect 
appears to take no notice of any other, save such as it may prey on or 
parasitise ; it goes about its business of food-getting and the like, it 
makes no smallest sign that it is aware of the existence of any other 
insect, and so far as can be judged from its actions, is leading an abso¬ 
lutely and wholly solitary life ; there are exceptions, of course, but very 
few ; the social insects are apparent exceptions, but even there it is 
extremely doubtful how far individuals are not isolated ; they work to¬ 
gether it is true, but in a manner that suggests two machines under the 
same controlling conditions, not two sentient reasoning organisms acting 
