Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1882-08-04
Sir John Lubbock on Ants and Bees.

Sir John Lubbock on Ants and Bees.
Few scientific workers have spread their
interest over so wide field as Sir John
Lubbock; and yet it is not difficult to trace
a certain thread Of continuity running
through all the subjse to which he de
votes his leisure with such excellent effect.
For example. his researches into the orr
gin of civilization and into the habits of
ants and bees, diverse as they appear
have still this point in common, that both
deal alike with the evolution of social
communities from lower sporadic types of
life. Indeed, he holds that, though the
anthropoid apes approach nearest in all
animals to man in bodily structure, the
ants may fairly rank next to us in social
organization and in general intelligence.
! They even show certain indications of pro-
aressive development within their own
class. For some ruder species live mainly
by the chase, like hunting sayages; other
more highly evolved types have domesti-
Gated the aphides, and so resemble the
pastoral races of mankind; while still high
er kinds, such as the harvesting ants, have
reached the agricultural stage of civiliza-
their institution of slavery. their elaborate
architecture, and their regular roadways,
all bring into strong relief the analogy Of
their nests to human societies.
When Sir John Lubbock began his ex-
periments he intended to conduct them
chiefly with bees and wasps He soon
found, however, that those singing and
flying insects we're unpleasantly excitable
| in temper, and that ants were much easier
creatures to observe from every point of
view. To ants, accordingly, the larger
part Of the volume is devoted. The par
ticulars about the different modes of fight
| ing adopted by the various species, their
manner of building, their athletic games,
| their cleanliness, and their drunken &C.
tions, are often ludicrously quaint in their
suggestiveness of human analogies. Even
more so are the facts as to their domestic
| animals, which Sir John Lubbock has
very specially investigated. Besides the
aphides, which they milk as cows Ito adopt
the usual simile), and whose eggs they pre-
serve through the winter, they keep sever
al other domesticated insects, belonging
to over 500 species. Most of them, in
Guiding the two commonest, a beetle and
wood-louse, have lived so long in their
underground homes that they have become
quite blind by disuse of their eyes; many
of them seem to produce secretions which
the ants eat; while Others appear to act as
scavengers, or to emit agreeable odors.-
In some cases the insects are so helpless
that they have to be fed by their masters.
Equally curious are the relations subsist-
ing between the different kinds of ants
themselves. One small species lives in
the walls which partition the nests of
larger neighbor; and these occasionally
carry off the Larvae OF their Involuntary
| hosts as food. In another case, smaller
kind seems to be kept like cats by it's big
ger kinsmen. Such instances, together
with tho common theft of pup@. help to
explain the origin Of ant-slavery; for sto-
len pupe are often kept for awhile before
being devoursd-just as among eannibal
savages slaves may have arisen from the
the habit of keeping and fattening any sur
plus captives taken in battle and not i'm
mediatelY 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 evolution-how worker bees
can inherit their instincts from an unbro-
ken 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
at all, into the pedigree of the nest or hive.
But through their male offspring they may
really contribute regularly to keep up the
standard of instinct in their race.
Sir John Lubbock has watched his ants
bees and wasps hour after hour with I'M
ceasing fidelity, and has chronicled their
movements with the minutest PATIENCE
Moreover he has employed direct expert
ments far more fully than any previous in
vsstigator in this field-devising most in
genious plans for getting the insects uncon-
scieusly to display their intelligence or
stupidity, their moral feeling or their un-
serupulOus selfshness. On the whole, both
as regards bees and ants the result of these
admirable researches is rather derogatory
to the intellect and the morals Of the So
cial insects. Their good qualities are all
of the most communistic sort; there is lit
tie individual feeling, little spontaniety of
effort among them in any way. They are
very Industrious; they will fight recklessly
for their hive or the nest; they will accept
death unhes;tatinqly for tho common
advantage; and they will even turn them
selves into living honey jars on behalf OF
the community to which they belong. But
they exhibit few signs of personal affec-
ton; they are utterly careless of one an
others lives; and they seldom perform any
acts of individual beneficence. They are
in short, members Of an insect phalan-
stery which knows no ethical principle ex-
cept the collective good. AS to intslli-
gence. Sir John Lubbock rather inclines to
the belief that ants possess some rude
means of Accommodation and GER
tainly 1t is hard for any one who has
watched them closely to resist the convic-
ton that they talk to one another some
how with their attenn@. The experiments
on the perception of color by bees concur
slvely prove that these insects can dlstln-
gaish all the prismatic hues as we'll as we
ourselves, and help to throw light upon
the origin and development of colored
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