Page:Ants, Wheeler (1910).djvu/33



It is a matter of common observation that the higher animals—those, namely, that in structure and behavior are most like ourselves—are also the ones which arouse our keenest interest, for besides the interest prompted by purely æsthetic of gastronomic motives, or by that atavic love of the chase, so universal among healthy men, there is a more intellectual interest which zoölogists and layman alike experience when they contemplate in the nearest of their animal kindred the vague byt unmistakable prototypes of the human body and its activities. The only lower animals that from immemorial time have retained a like interest for man, are certain insects—the social bees and wasps, the termites and the ants. And among these what appeals so forcibly to the imagination is not the structure or activities of the individuals as such, but the extraordinary instincts which compel them to live permanently in intimate consociations. In this case also our interest is aroused by an undeniable resemblance to our own condition. Reflection shows that this resemblance cannot be superficial, but mut depend on a high degree of adaptability and plasticity common to man and the social insects, for in order to live in permanent commonwealths, an organism must be not only remarkably adaptive to changes in its 2