are necessarily associated with reproduction. If this is
what he means, he seems to claim for sexual reproduction
a remarkable power of modification. But apart from this
difficulty, we must assume that in this passage he wishes
to exclude the idea that they work with intelligence and
acquired knowledge ; for he contrasts their instincts with
man’s acquired knowledge. But this assumption is not in
accordance with facts. Ants, bees and wasps are intel
ligent creatures, adapting themselves to new conditions as
they occur, and teaching others what they have themselves
learned. It is obvious that the whole difficulty of the
problem we are now discussing is not as to whether neuter
insects are intelligent, but whether the habits suggested
by their intelligence can be inherited.
But even if these assumptions were not proved to be
based in error, it would be difficult to understand how this
phenomenon had been brought about by Natural Selection.
We have to account for the origin of the neuters, not only
as sterile females, but also possessed of special organisms
with which special functions are correlated. We have to
account for the development of two and even three different
kinds of neuter insects, and we have to picture to ourselves
the process by which this complex result has been brought
about. The explanation given is that the selection which
takes place is not the survival of the best individuals and
the destruction of the rest, but the selection of those
families which reap the greatest advantage through this
subdivision of labour and the destruction of the rest;
which results in the survival of those queens which possess
or inherit the faculty for breeding the most workers.
This suggests two points to be considered. How does
one family gain this victory over another? and, secondly,
what chance is there that the surviving queens of the
surviving families will themselves be able to survive?