Seite - 275 - in The Origin of Species
Bild der Seite - 275 -
Text der Seite - 275 -
SLAVE-MAKING INSTINCT 275
as yet been perfected; for a surprising number of eggs lie
strewed over the plains, so that in one day's hunting I picked
up no less than twenty lost and wasted eggs.
Many bees are parasitic, and regularly lay their eggs in the
nests of other kinds of bees. This case is more remarkable
than that of the cuckoo; for these bees have not only had
their instincts but their structure modified in accordance with
their parasitic habits
; for they do not possess the pollen-
collecting apparatus which would have been indispensable if
they had stored up food for their own young. Some species
of Sphegidae (wasp-like insects) are likewise parasitic; and
M. Fabre has lately shown good reason for believing that,
although the Tachytes nigra generally makes its own burrow
and stores it with paralysed prey for its own larvae, yet that,
when this insect finds a burrow already made and stored by
another sphex, it takes advanta;^e of the prize, and becomes
for the occasion parasitic. In this case, as with that of the
Molothrus or cuckoo, I can see no difficulty in natural selec-
tion making an occasional habit permanent, if of advantage
to the species, and if the insect whose nest and stored food
are feloniously appropriated, be not thus exterminated.
Slave-making instinct.—This remarkable instinct was first
discovered in the Formica (Polyerges) rufescens by Pierre
Huber, a better observer even than his celebrated father. This
ant is absolutely dependent on its slaves; without their aid,
the species would certainly become extinct in a single year.
The males and fertile females do no work of any kind, and
the workers or sterile females, though most energetic and
courageous in capturing slaves, do no other work. They are
incapable of making their own nests, or of feeding their own
larvae. When the old nest is found inconvenient, and they
have to migrate, it is the slaves which determine the migra-
tion, and actually carry their masters in their jaws. So
utterly helpless are the masters, that when Huber shut up
thirty of them without a slave, but with plenty of the food
Vv'hich they like best, and with their own larvae and pupre to
stimulate them to work, they did nothing; they could not
even feed themselves, and many perished of hunger. Huber
then introduced a single slave (F. fusca), and she instantly
set to work, fed and saved the survivors; made some cells
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Buch The Origin of Species"
The Origin of Species
- Titel
- The Origin of Species
- Autor
- Charles Darwin
- Verlag
- P. F. Collier & Son
- Ort
- New York
- Datum
- 1909
- Sprache
- englisch
- Lizenz
- PD
- Abmessungen
- 10.5 x 16.4 cm
- Seiten
- 568
- Schlagwörter
- Evolutionstheorie, Evolution, Theory of Evolution, Naturwissenschaft, Natural Sciences
- Kategorien
- International
- Naturwissenschaften Biologie
Inhaltsverzeichnis
- EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION 5
- AN HISTORICAL SKETCH of the Progress of Opinion on the Origin of Species 9
- INTRODUCTION 21
- Variation under Domestication 25
- Variation under Nature 58
- Struggle for Existence 76
- Natural Selection; or the Survival of the Fittest 93
- Laws of Variation 145
- Difficulties of the Theory 178
- Miscellaneous Objections to the Theory of Natural Selection 219
- Instinct 262
- Hybridism 298
- On the Imperfection of the Geological Record 333
- On the Geological Succession of Organic Beinss 364
- Geographical Distribution 395
- Geographical Distribution - continued 427
- Mutual Affinities of Organic Beings: Morphology: Embryology: Rudimentary Organs 450
- Recapitulation and Conclusion 499
- GLOSSARY 531
- INDEX 541