The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1882-08-18
sir Iohn Lnhhoek on Anta and Bees.

Few scientific workers have spread
their interests over so wide a field as
| Sir John Lubbock; and yet it is not diff
| ralt to trace certain thread of continu-
| itv running through all the subjects to
which he devotes his leisure with such
excellent effect. For example, his re-
searches into the origin of civilization
| and into the habits of ants and bees, di-
verse as they appear, have still this
point in common, that both deal alike
with the evolution of social communi-
ties from lower sporadic types OF life In
deed, he holds that, though the anthro-
poid apes approach nearest in all animals
| To man in bodily structure, the ants may
| fairly rank next to US in social organlza
ton and in general intelligence. They
! even show certain indications of pro
rressive development within their own
| class. For some ruder species live main
| " by the chase. like hunting savages,
| other more highly evolved types have
domesticated the aphides, and so re-
/ semble the pastoral races of mankind;
while still higher kinds, such rs the
! harvesting ants, have reached the agri-
! cultural stage of civilization. Theii
marked division of labor, their institu-
ton of slavery. their elaborate archi-
/ lecture, and their regular roadways, all
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| their nests to human societies.
When Sir John Lubbock began his eN-
/ periments he intended to conduct them
| chiefly with bees and wasps. He soon
/ found, however, that those singing and
| flying insects were unpleasantly eNcita
bic in temper, and that ants were much
easier creatures to observe from every
point of view. To ants, accordingly, the
/ larger part of his volume is devoted.
The particulars about the different modes
/ of lighting adopted By the various spc-
cies, their manner of building, their ath
letic games, their cleanliness and their
drunken actions, are often ludicrously
quaint in their snggestiveness OF human
analogieS. Even more so are the facts
as to their domestic animals, which Sir
John Lubbock has very specially inves-
4 tigated. Besides the aphides which they
milk as COWS TO adopt the usual simile)
and whose eggs they preserve through
the winter, they keep several other do
mesticated insects, belonging to over 500
species. Most OF them including the
two commonest, beetle and a wood
louise, have lived so long in their under
ground homes that they have become
quite blind by disuse Of their eyes; many
of them seem To produce secrctions which
the ants eat; while others appear to act
as scaVengeFs, or TO emit agreeable Odors.
In some, eases the insects are so helpless
that they have to be fed by'their masters.
Equally curious are the relations sub
sisting between the different kinds of
ants themselves. One small species lives
in the walls which partition the-nests OF
n larger neighbor; and these occasionally
carry OF the laryie of their involuntary
hosts as food. In another ease, 4 smaller
ger kinsmcn Such Instances, together
with the common theft of pQpe, help tc
explain the origin OF ant-slavery; toI
stolen pupe are often kept for awhile be
fore being deyourcd -justas among can
nibal savages slaves may have ariseL
from the habit of keeping and fattenine
any surplus captives taken in battle and
not Immediately required for food. The
facts as to the eggs occasionally laid by
workers. both among ants and bees, from
which males are always Matched, seem
full of significance for the solution OF
a famous problem in evoltion-how
worker bees can inherit their instinct,
from an unbroken ancestry of queens and
drones, none of whom ever possessed
them. If the workers eggs Matched out
workers, they would, OF course. enter
very little, or not NJ all, into the pedi-
gree of the nest or hive But through
their male offspring they may really con
tribute regularly to keepu up the standard
OF instinct in .their race.
Sir John Lubbock has watched his
ants, his bees and his wasps hour after
hour with unceasing fidelity, and has
chronicled their movements with the
minutest patience. Moreover. he has
employed direct experiment far more
fully than any previous investigator in
this field-deyising most ingenious plans
for getting insects unconSciously to dis
play their intelligence or stupidity, then
moral feeling or their unscrupulous
selGshness. On the whole, both rs re
CARDS bees aud ants, the result of these
admirable researches is rather deroga-
tory to the intellect and the morals OF
the social insects. Their good qualities
are all of the most communistic sort
there is little individual feeling. little
spontaneity of effort among them in any
way. They are very Industrious; they
Will fight recklessly for the hive or the
nest they viii accept death unhesitat-
ingly for the common advantage; @and
l they will even turn themselves into liv-
ing honey-iars on behalf of the com
munity to which they belong. But they
exhibit few signs of personal affection.
they are utterly careless of one another :
lives; and they seldom perform any acts
of individual benelicence. They are, in
short, members of an insect phalanstery
which knows no ethical principle except
the collective good. As to intelligence,
Sir John Lubbock rather inclines to the
belief that ants possess some rude means
of INSTRUMENTATION; and certainly
it is hard for any one who has watched
them closely 10 resist the conviction that
| Il. IL
their antenne. The experiments on the
perception of color by bees conclusiyely
prove that these insects can distinguish
all the prismatic hues as we'll as we our
selves, and help to throw light upon the
origin and development of colored flow
ers. Altogether the book is as interest
inc as it Is valuable; and the lucid sim
+ plicity of its style, unencumbered BY
any unnecessary tcchnicalities, is sure to
make it popular favorite--!St- james,
Gazette.
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