2^2 
In the two passages which I quoted from Mr. Darwin, 
two processes seem to be suggested, (ist) The immediate 
production by the variation of sexual reproduction of a 
neuter class. (2nd) The slight and gradual modification 
of the characteristics which distinguish the neuters. As to 
the first point, it assumes that the neuter is born a neuter, 
which it seems is not true to the facts of the case, 
and may therefore be dismissed. The second suggestion 
assumes a very slight and gradual modification in a few 
individuals ; and it is difficult to understand how such a 
modification, carried on to a little greater extent in one 
nest than in another, could ensure the survival of the one 
and the elimination of the other. 
If the survival of one family and the destruction of 
another family cannot be proved to take place as the 
result of a few neuters, more or less, in each nest, still 
more difficult is it to believe that the females which 
possess the power of laying more neuter eggs would be 
sure to survive, after their family had prevailed in the 
struggle for existence. Take, for example, the simplest 
and probably the earliest form of the social life of insects 
—the case of the wasps. Mr. Grant Allen has given us 
a graphic description of the way in which the race is 
preserved from extinction. 
“ With the first frosts the mass of what was once a flourishing com 
munity of worker wasps is cut off wholesale and perishes miserably 
of cold and inanition. . . . Lest the whole race should thus 
die off without issue or representative, every autumn there is born in 
each nest a special brood of perfect male and female insects, whose 
task it is to provide for the continuance of their kind across the inter 
vening gulf of northern winter. There are several hundred females 
in the nest, of equal rank, and the question which or how many 
among them are finally to become the foundresses of new nests is 
decided in nature’s usual rough-and-ready fashion—by the chances of 
survival. For the immediate future they betake themselves to the 
snuggest and warmest holes they can find in moss or banks and there