. Ants; their structure, development and behavior. bryologist seeks out the earliest moment at whichthe organism may be shown to deviate from the ontogenetic pattern POLYMORPHISM. 103 of its parent. If this moment can be detected very early in the devel-opment he will be inclined to project the morphological differentiationback into the germ-plasm and to regard the efforts of the physiologistas relatively unimportant if not altogether futile. Now in his study ofthe social insects the embryologist is at a serious disadvantage, sincehe has hitherto been unable to distinguish any prospective work
. Ants; their structure, development and behavior. bryologist seeks out the earliest moment at whichthe organism may be shown to deviate from the ontogenetic pattern POLYMORPHISM. 103 of its parent. If this moment can be detected very early in the devel-opment he will be inclined to project the morphological differentiationback into the germ-plasm and to regard the efforts of the physiologistas relatively unimportant if not altogether futile. Now in his study ofthe social insects the embryologist is at a serious disadvantage, sincehe has hitherto been unable to distinguish any prospective worker orqueen characters in the eggs or even in the young larvae. Compelled,therefore, to confine his attention to the older larvae, whose develop-ment as mere processes of histogenesis and metamorphosis throws littleor no light on the meaning of polymorphism, he is bound to leavethe physiologist in possession of the problem. The physiologist, in seeking to determine whether there is in theenvironment of the developing social Hymenopteron any normal. FIG. 64. Gynandromorph of Ef>if>heidole inqitilina ; male on the left, female on the right side. (Original.) stimulus that may account for the deviation towards the worker orqueen type, can hardly overlook one of the most important of allstimuli, the food of the larva. At first sight this bids fair greatly tosimplify the problem of polymorphism, for the mere size of the adultinsect would seem to be attributable to the quantity, its morphologicaldeviations to the quality of the food administered to it during itslarval life. Closer examination of the subject, however, cannot failto show that larval alimentation among such highly specialized animalsas the social insects, and especially in the honey-bees and ants, wherethe differences between the queens and workers are most salient, is amatter of considerable complexity. In the first place, it is evident thatit is not the food administered that acts as a stimulus but the portion ANT
Size: 1846px × 1354px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bo, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, booksubjectants, bookyear1910
