the workers and the perfect females, would have been
far better exemplified by the hive-bee. If a working ant or other
neuter insect had been an animal in the ordinary state, I should have
unhesitatingly assumed that all its characters had been slowly acquired
through natural selection; namely, by an individual having been born
with some slight profitable modification of structure, this being
inherited by its offspring, which again varied and were again selected,
and so onwards. But with the working ant we have an insect differing
greatly from its parents, yet absolutely sterile; so that it could never
have transmitted successively acquired modifications of structure or
instinct to its progeny. It may well be asked how is it possible to
reconcile this case with the theory of natural selection?

First, let it be remembered that we have innumerable instances, both in
our domestic productions and in those in a state of nature, of all sorts
of differences of structure which have become correlated to certain
ages, and to either sex. We have differences correlated not only to
one sex, but to that short period alone when the reproductive system is
active, as in the nuptial plumage of many birds, and in the hooked jaws
of the male salmon. We have even slight differences in the horns of
different breeds of cattle in relation to an artificially imperfect
state of the male sex; for oxen of certain breeds have longer horns than
in other breeds, in comparison with the horns of the bulls or cows of
these same breeds. Hence I can see no real difficulty in any character
having become correlated with the sterile condition of certain members
of insect-communities: the difficulty lies in understanding how such
correlated modifications of structure could have been slowly accumulated
by natural selection.

This difficulty, though appearing insuperable, is lessened, or, as I
believe, disappears, when it is remembered that selection may be applied
to the family, as well as to the individual, and may thus gain the
desired end. Thus, a well-flavoured vegetable is cooked, and the
individual is destroyed; but the horticulturist sows seeds of the same
stock, and confidently expects to get nearly the same variety; breeders
of cattle wish the flesh and fat to be well marbled together; the animal
has been slaughtered, but the breeder goes with confidence to the same
family. I have such faith in the powers of selection, that I do not
doubt that a br