Origin of Species Variorum

→ which, as I believe, 1869 1872

or of the same kind, which 1859 1860 1861

which 1866

→ different from the fertile males and females through 1869 1872

by 1859 1860 1861 1866

→ we may conclude 1869 1872

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

→ OMIT 1869 1872

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

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

→ first arise 1869 1872

probably at first appear 1859 1860 1861

at first appear 1866

→ communities with females 1869 1872

fertile parents 1859 1860 1861 1866

→ be thus 1869 1872

have the desired 1859 1860 1861 1866

→ in 1869 1872

neuter-insects of 1859 1860

neuter insects of 1861 1866

→ nest neuter insects, 1869 1872

species, in the same nest, 1859 1860 1861 1866

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,

→which, as I believe, have been rendered →different from the fertile males and females through natural selection, →we may conclude from the →OMIT analogy of ordinary variations, that

each

the

successive, slight, profitable

modification

modifications

did not →first arise in all the

individual

....

neuters in the same nest, but in

some

few alone; and that by the

long-continued selection

survival

of the →communities with females which

produce

produced

most neuters

with

having

the

profitable

advantageous

modification, all the neuters ultimately

come

came

to →be thus

character.

characterized.

characterised.

According to

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

often,

frequently,

not rarely,

considering how few

neuter-insects

neuter insects

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

how surprisingly

that

the neuters of several British ants differ

from

surprisingly from

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

sometimes

....

perfectly

....

linked together by individuals taken out of the same nest: I have myself compared perfect gradations of this kind. It

often

sometimes

happen

happens

that the larger or the smaller sized workers are the most numerous; or that both large and small are numerous,

with

whilst

those of an intermediate size

scanty

are scanty

in numbers. Formica flava has larger and smaller workers, with some

few of

intermediate size; and, in this species, as Mr. F. Smith has observed, the larger workers have simple eyes (ocelli), which though small can be plainly distinguished, whereas the smaller workers have their ocelli rudimentary. Having carefully dissected several specimens of these workers, I can affirm that the eyes are far more rudimentary in the smaller workers than can be accounted for merely by their proportionally lesser size; and I fully believe, though I dare not assert so positively, that the workers of intermediate size have their ocelli in an exactly intermediate condition. So that

we here

here we

have two bodies of sterile workers in the same nest, differing not only in size, but in their organs of vision, yet connected by some few members in an

intermediate

inter- mediate