| → labour and wax 1869 1872 |
| wax 1859 1860 1861 1866 |
|
| → would 1859 1860 1861 1869 1872 |
| and labour would 1866 |
|
| → labour and wax. 1866 1869 1872 |
| wax. 1859 1860 1861 |
|
| → plates; 1866 1869 1872 |
| plates. 1859 1860 |
| plates. The motive power of the process of natural selection having been economy of wax, together with cells of due strength, and of the proper size and shape for the larvæ; that individual swarm which made the best cells, and wasted least honey in the secretion of wax, having succeeded best, and having transmitted by inheritance their newly acquired economical instincts to new swarms, which in their turn will have had the best chance of succeeding in the struggle for existence. 1861 |
|
| → the construction of cells of due strength and of the proper size and shape for the larvæ, this being effected with the greatest possible economy of labour and wax; 1869 1872 |
| economy of wax; 1859 1860 |
| the construction of cells of due strength and of the proper size and shape for the larvæ, this being effected with the greatest possible economy of was and labour; 1866 |
|
| → thus made the best cells with least labour, and least waste of 1866 1869 1872 |
| wasted least 1859 1860 |
|
| → their 1872 |
| by inheritance its 1859 1860 |
| by inheritance their 1866 1869 |
|
|
to our
if
were to make
cells more and more regular, nearer together, and aggregated into a mass, like the cells of the Melipona; for in this case a large part of the bounding surface of each cell would serve to bound
cells, and much
→labour and wax
→would
be saved. Again, from the same cause, it would be advantageous to the Melipona, if she were to make her cells closer together, and more regular in every way than at present; for then, as we have seen, the spherical surfaces would wholly
and
be replaced by plane surfaces; and the Melipona would make a comb as perfect as that of the hive-bee. Beyond this stage of perfection in architecture, natural selection could not lead; for the comb of the hive-bee, as far as we can see, is absolutely perfect in economising
→labour and wax.
|
|
| Thus, as I believe, the most wonderful of all known instincts, that of the hive-bee, can be explained by natural selection having taken advantage of numerous, successive, slight modifications of simpler instincts; natural selection
by slow degrees, more and more
led the bees to sweep equal spheres at a given distance from each other in a double layer, and to build up and excavate the wax along the planes of
bees, of course, no more knowing that they swept their spheres at one particular distance from each other, than they know what are the several angles of the hexagonal prisms and of the basal rhombic
→plates;
motive power of the process of natural selection having been
→the construction of cells of due strength and of the proper size and shape for the larvæ, this being effected with the greatest possible economy of labour and wax;
that individual swarm which
→thus made the best cells with least labour, and least waste of
honey in the secretion of wax, having succeeded best, and having transmitted
→their
economical
to new swarms, which in their turn will have had the best chance of succeeding in the struggle for existence. |
| Objections
to
the
Theory
of
Natural
Selection
as
applied
to
Instincts:
Neuter
and
Sterile
|
| It has been objected to the foregoing view
the origin of
that "the variations of structure and of instinct must have been simultaneous and accurately adjusted to each other, as a modification in the one without an immediate corresponding change in the other would have been fatal." The force of this objection
entirely
on the assumption that the changes in
and structure are abrupt. To take as an illustration the case of the larger titmouse (Parus major) alluded to in
chapter:
|
