F381    Book:     Darwin, C. R. 1861. On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. London: John Murray. 3d ed. Seventh thousand.   Text   Image   PDF

, that of working or sterile ants. How the workers have been rendered sterile is a difficulty; but not much greater than that of any other striking modification of structure; for it can be shown that some insects and other articulate animals in a state of nature occasionally become sterile; and if such insects had been social, and it had been profitable to the community that a number should have been annually born capable of work, but incapable of procreation, I can see no very great difficulty in

F381    Book:     Darwin, C. R. 1861. On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. London: John Murray. 3d ed. Seventh thousand.   Text   Image   PDF

Thus, as I believe, the wonderful fact of two distinctly defined castes of sterile workers existing in the same nest, both widely different from each other and from their parents, has originated. We can see how useful their production may have been to a social community of insects, on the same principle that the division of labour is useful to civilised man. As ants work by inherited instincts and by inherited organs or tools, and not by acquired knowledge and manufactured instruments, a

F381    Book:     Darwin, C. R. 1861. On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. London: John Murray. 3d ed. Seventh thousand.   Text   Image   PDF

., on blind rat, 154. Rudiments important for classification, 448. Skulls of young mammals, 217, 468. Slave-making instinct, 239. S. Smith, Col. Hamilton, on striped horses, 182. ——, Mr. Fred., on slave-making ants, 240. Saliva used in nests, 257. Sagaret on grafts, 284. ——, on neuter ants, 261. Salmons, males fighting, and hooked jaws of, 93. ——, Mr., of Jordan Hill, on the degradation of coast-rocks, 306. Salt-water, how far injurious to seeds, 388. Snap-dragon, 179. Somerville, Lord, on

F381    Book:     Darwin, C. R. 1861. On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. London: John Murray. 3d ed. Seventh thousand.   Text   Image   PDF

three years old with wonderfully little practice, had played a tune with no practice at all, he might truly be said to have done so instinctively. But it would be the most serious error to suppose that the greater number of instincts have been acquired by habit in one generation, and then transmitted by inheritance to succeeding generations. It can be clearly shown that the most wonderful instincts with which we are acquainted, namely, those of the hive-bee and of many ants, could not possibly have

F381    Book:     Darwin, C. R. 1861. On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. London: John Murray. 3d ed. Seventh thousand.   Text   Image   PDF

climax of the difficulty; namely, the fact that the neuters of several ants differ, not only from the fertile females and males, but from each other, sometimes to an almost incredible degree, and are thus divided into two or even three castes. The castes, moreover, do not generally graduate into each other, but are perfectly well defined; being as distinct from each other, as are any two species [page] 26

F381    Book:     Darwin, C. R. 1861. On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. London: John Murray. 3d ed. Seventh thousand.   Text   Image   PDF

of the smaller men, and jaws nearly five times as big. The jaws, moreover, of the working ants of the several sizes differed wonderfully in shape, and in the form and number of the teeth. But the important fact for us is, that though the workers can be grouped into castes of different sizes, yet they graduate insensibly into each other, as does the widely-different structure of their jaws. I speak confidently on this latter point, as Mr. Lubbock made drawings for me with the camera lucida of

F381    Book:     Darwin, C. R. 1861. On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. London: John Murray. 3d ed. Seventh thousand.   Text   Image   PDF

destroyed by flies in La Plata,75. ——, striped, 181. Jussieu on classification, 449. ——, proportions of, when young, 477. Horticulturists, selection applied by, 33. K. Huber on cells of bees, 251. ——, P., on reason blended with instinct, 228. Kentucky, caves of, 154. Kerguelen-land, flora of, 411, 430. —— on habitual nature of instincts, 228. Kidney-bean, acclimatisation of, 160. Kidneys of birds, 161. ——, on slave-making ants, 239. Kirby on tarsi deficient in beetles, 152. ——, on Melipona domestica

CUL-DAR205.3.222    Note:    1861.07.31   Wollaston says Thorictus[?] (as Family clearly somewhat related to   Text   Image

The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online [222] July 30 /61/ Wollaston says Thorictus, (a Fam. by itself somewhat allied to Histera) nearly blind inactive found in all 7 islds of Canaries in Madeira P. Santo - allied sp. at Cape. - Good case of difficulty - If landed by accident Ants would pick up carry to nest. - Seldom wander above a few inches from nest - numerous in nests carefully guarded carried by the Ants. 1

F1938    Periodical contribution:     [Darwin, C. R.] 1862. Notice on the Habits of the "Agricultural Ant" of Texas ["Stinging Ant" or "Mound-making Ant," Myrmica (Atta) malefaciens, Buckley]. By Gideon Lincecum, Esq., M.D. Communicated by Charles Darwin, Esq., F.R.S., F.L.S. [Read 18 April 1861] Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London (Zoology) 6: 29-31.   Text   Image   PDF

same agricultural attention as was bestowed upon the previous crop,—and so on year after year, as I know to be the case, in all situations where the ants' settlements are protected from graminivorous animals. In a second letter, Dr. Lincecum in reply to an inquiry from Mr. Darwin, whether he supposed that the ants plant seeds for the ensuing crop, says, I have not the slightest doubt of it. And my conclusions have not been arrived at from hasty or careless observation, nor from seeing the ants

F655    Book:     Darwin, C. R. 1862. De l'origine des espèces ou des lois du progrès chez les êtres organisés. Translated and with preface and notes by Mlle Clémence-Auguste Royer. Paris: Guillaumin et Cie.   Text   Image   PDF

qu'elles soient pour nous, sont cependant tr s-suffisantes pour causer d'abord la raret d'une esp ce et finalement son extinction. On comprend si peu cette loi, que j'ai vu souvent des gens ne pouvoir revenir de l' tonnement que leur causait l'extinction de g ants de l'organisation tels que le Mastodonte, ou le Dinosaure plus ancien encore, comme si la seule force physique suffisait donner la victoire dans la bataille de la vie. La grande taille d'une esp ce, au contraire, peut quelquefois en