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Updated: May 13, 2025
The fat ants in fact could not themselves consume all the honey that they have elaborated; the others in times of famine approach them, caress them with their antennæ, and obtain by solicitation a drop of honey which the large ones disgorge from the crop. Here, then, is a colony in which the division of labour has reached a remarkable degree of polymorphism.
All the individuals of the species are not alike; there exists a polymorphism which produces creatures of three sorts: 1, the soldiers, recognised by their large heads and long sharp mandibles, moved by powerful muscles; it is their mission to defend the whole colony against its adversaries, and the wounds they can produce, fatal to creatures of their own size, are painful even to man; 2, the workers, who labour as navvies and architects, and take charge of the pupæ: they form the great majority of the community; 3, the king and queen.
The most marvelous instincts of the insect do nothing but develop its special structure into movements: indeed, where social life divides the labor among different individuals, and thus allots them different instincts, a corresponding difference of structure is observed: the polymorphism of ants, bees, wasps and certain pseudoneuroptera is well known.
In insect societies there is generally polymorphism, the subdivision of labor is natural, and each individual is riveted by its structure to the function it performs. In any case, these societies are based on instinct, and consequently on certain actions or fabrications that are more or less dependent on the form of the organs.
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