change comes about in her activities and in the life of the whole community.  The members of the first brood do not grow into counterparts of their mother; they are all sexless “workers” who progressively relieve their parent of the tasks of nest-building and foraging and nursing, so that their mother becomes a “queen” who devotes her entire time to the special reproductive task which she only can perform.  We may justly compare the queen to the reproductive organ of Hydra, for the values to the life of the species are identical in the two cases, while the various classes of workers are counterparts of such units as the muscle and nerve and nutritive components of the Hydra or any other cell-community individual.  Another resemblance between the two is found in the death of all the sexless individuals at the end of the season, when reproducing males and females are finally formed, of whom the fertile queens only survive in their winter hiding places; and again we can discover the cause for biological death in that division of labor which calls upon certain members of the whole community to perform tasks that have no value when once provision has been made for perpetuating the species.  Finally the mode by which the colony grows and amplifies is in all respects like the embryonic development of an egg into a Hydra, so that we may add the phrase “social embryology” to our vocabulary.  The original female is an undifferentiated master of all trades; the small tribe she first establishes is little better off than a horde of savages; but during its seasonal existence the community increases in numbers and complexity until it advances well toward the civilized condition, when each class performs its special task for the good of all.

The bees take us higher in the scale, although many solitary species occur, as well as social forms like the bumblebees where colonies are formed in a single season only to break up with the advent of cold weather.  The honeybees, however, establish permanent communities from which swarms may set out during the warm months to become new colonies elsewhere.  Many hundreds of bees make up a hive, and they belong to three classes or castes, which differ in structure and social function.  The queen is a fertile female, the drones are males, and the workers are stunted and infertile females which take no part in reproduction.  In this case the queen never discharges any menial duties, for these are attended to by the workers; she devotes her entire time to laying eggs, which are cared for by her subjects, who act as nurses and guards for the monarch as well.  The young workers serve at first as doorkeepers, and only later do they take the field in the search for nectar and pollen, and work as house-builders.  Each individual performs its special task for its own benefit and for the weal of all; each possesses an equal right to share in the prosperity of the whole community so long as it acts altruistically as well