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themselves convey any necessary hint as to the agent by 
which the transmutation has been brought about. 
It has sometimes been asserted that it is impossible to 
conceive of the evolution of neuter insects by any other 
means than that of Natural Selection. But I venture to 
think that it is not so. Looking at this phenomenon by 
the light of organic evolution, let us see if we can do 
anything to solve the problem. The complex commu 
nities of social insects have been derived from some 
simpler method of life. At the outset the solitary female 
builds a nest, lays her eggs, and dies ; and the eggs in 
due season are hatched, and a new generation begins to 
run the annual course of insect existence. The next stage 
would perhaps be when, in addition to the mere laying 
of the eggs, some provision was stored up for the future 
larva as well. The next stage might be reached when 
the mother builds the nest, lays her eggs, and then 
attends to them until they are hatched. In the next 
stage, we may suppose that the female founder of the 
nest would become so fertile as to have more than one 
brood in the year, and would then instruct the first 
brood in the art of building the nest and of caring 
for the young of the second brood. By this process 
the sexual development of the first brood would be 
delayed, but when the work required of them was 
done they might then resume the normal development. 
In those cases in which the undeveloped female becomes 
developed, there is no need for a marriage flight in order 
that she should lay fertile eggs. But the eggs which she 
lays would only produce males. The normally fertile 
female possesses a receptaculum seminis, and the eggs which 
she lays are either unfertilised or fertilised. Unfertilised 
eggs produce males ; fertilised eggs produce potential 
females, which may be developed into fertile females or