Page:Insects - Their Ways and Means of Living.djvu/176



that the human mind can hOt grasp, except in their ultimate analysis into first principles. Those who have faith in the consistency of nature endeavor to push a little farther into the great unknown knowable. There are a few things known about the termites that help to explain some of the apparent mysteries concerning them. For example, the members of a colony are for- ever licking or nibbling at one another; the workers ap- pear to be always cleaning the queen, and they are as- siduous in stroking the young. These labial attentions, or lip affections, moreover, are not unrewarded, for it appears that each member of the colony exudes some substance through its skin that is highly agreeable to the other members. Furthermore, the termites all feed one another with food material ejected from the alimen- tary canal, sometimes from one end, sometimes from the other. Each individual, therefore, is a triple source of nourishment to his fellows--he has to offer exudates from the skin, crop food from the mouth, and intestinal food from the anus--and this mutual exchange of food appears to form the basis for much of the attachment that exists among the members of the colony. It accounts for the maternal affections, the care of the queen and the young by the workers, the brotherly love between the workers and the soldiers. The golden rule of the termite colony is "feed others as you would be fed by them." The termites, therefore, are social creatures because, for physical reasons, no individual could lire and be happy away from his fellows. The same might be said of us, though, of course, we like to believe that our social instincts have not a purely physical basis. Be that as it may, we must recognize that any kind of social tie is but one of various possible means by which the benefits of community lire are insured to the members of the community. The custom of food exchange in the termite colonies can not be held to account by any means for all the things

[ I44]

TERMI'