ANTS, BEES, AND WASPS A RECORD OF OBSERVATIONS ON THE HABITS OF THE SOCIAL HYMENOPTERA BY SIR JOHN LUBBOCK, BART. M.P. F.R.S. D.C.L. LL.D. PRESIDENT OF THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION PRESIDENT OF THE LINNEAN SOCIETY: PRESIDENT OF THE INSTITUTE OF BANKERS HONORARY SECRETARY OF THE LONDON BANKERS FELLOW OF THE ENTOMOLOGICAL, GEOLOGICAL, AND OTHER SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES LONDON KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, & CO., 1 PATERNOSTER SQUARE HARVARD 21 JUL 1882 32.911 (The rights of translation and of reproduction are reserved) PREFACE. THIS Volume contains the record of various experiments made with ants, bees, and wasps during the past ten years. Other occupations and many interruptions, political and professional, have prevented me from making them so full and complete as I had hoped. My parliamentary duties, in particular, have absorbed most of my time just at the season of year when these insects can be most profitably studied. I have, therefore, whenever it seemed necessary, carefully recorded the month during which the observations were made; for the instincts and behaviour of ants, bees, and wasps are by no means the same throughout the year. My object has been not so much to describe the usual habits of these insects as to test their mental condition and powers of sense. Although the observations of Huber, Forel, McCook, and others are no doubt perfectly trustworthy, there are a number of scattered stories about ants which are quite unworthy of credence; and there is also a large class in which, although the facts may be correctly recorded, the inferences drawn from them are very questionable. I have endeavoured, therefore, by actual experiments which any one may, and I hope others will, repeat and verify, to throw some light on these interesting questions. The principal point in which my mode of experimenting has differed from that of previous observers has been that I have carefully marked and watched particular insects; and secondly, that I have had nests under observation for long periods. No one before had ever kept an ants' nest for more than a few months. I have one now in my room which has been under constant observation ever since 1874, i.e. for more than seven years.1 'I may add that these ants are still (March 1882) alive and well. The queens at least are now eight years old, if not more. |