Origin of Species Variorum

→ or of the same kind, which 1859 1860 1861

which 1866

which, as I believe, 1869 1872

→ by 1859 1860 1861 1866

different from the fertile males and females through 1869 1872

→ as I believe to be quite possible, different 1859 1860 1861 1866

we may conclude 1869 1872

→ fertile males and females— in this case, we may safely conclude from the 1861 1866

fertile males and females,— in this case, we may safely conclude from the 1859 1860

OMIT 1869 1872

→ probably at first appear 1859 1860 1861

at first appear 1866

first arise 1869 1872

→ fertile parents 1859 1860 1861 1866

communities with females 1869 1872

→ have the desired 1859 1860 1861 1866

be thus 1869 1872

→ neuter insects of 1861 1866

neuter-insects of 1859 1860

in 1869 1872

→ species, in the same nest, 1859 1860 1861 1866

nest neuter insects, 1869 1872

of the same genus, or rather as any two genera of the same family. Thus in Eciton, there are working and soldier neuters, with jaws and instincts extraordinarily different: in Cryptocerus, the workers of one caste alone carry a wonderful sort of shield on their heads, the use of which is quite unknown: in the Mexican

Myrme- cocystus,

Myrmecocystus,

the workers of one caste never leave the nest; they are fed by the workers of another caste, and they have an enormously developed abdomen which secretes a sort of honey, supplying the place of that excreted by the aphides, or the domestic cattle as they may be called, which our European ants guard

and

imprison.

It will indeed be thought that I have an overweening confidence in the principle of natural selection, when I do not admit that such wonderful and well-established facts at once annihilate

the

theory. In the simpler case of neuter insects all of one

caste,

caste

→or of the same kind, which have been rendered →by natural selection, →as I believe to be quite possible, different from the →fertile males and females— in this case, we may safely conclude from the analogy of ordinary variations, that

the

each

successive, slight, profitable

modifications

modification

did not →probably at first appear in all the

~~individual~~

individual

neuters in the same nest, but in

some

few alone; and that by the

survival

long-continued selection

of the →fertile parents which

produce

produced

most neuters

having

with

the

advantageous

profitable

modification, all the neuters ultimately

come

came

to →have the desired

characterized.

characterised.

character.

According to

this view we ought occasionally to find →neuter insects of the same →species, in the same nest, presenting gradations of structure; and this we do find, even

frequently,

not rarely,

often,

considering how few

neuter-insects

neuter insects

out of Europe have been carefully examined. Mr. F. Smith has shown

that

how surprisingly

the neuters of several British ants differ

surprisingly from

from

each other in size and sometimes in colour; and that the extreme forms can

~~sometimes~~

sometimes

~~perfectly~~

perfectly