" (p. 290) This remark was made with special
reference to the instincts of the ant, which he finds very hard to
account for. He adds, "No doubt many instincts of very difficult
explanation could be opposed to the theory of natural selection: cases
in which we cannot see how an instinct could possibly have originated;
cases in which no intermediate gradations are known to exist; cases of
instinct of such trifling importance that they could hardly have been
acted upon by natural selection; cases of instincts almost identically
the same in animals so remote in the scale of nature, that we cannot
account for their similarity by inheritance from a common progenitor,
and consequently cannot believe that they were independently acquired
through natural selection. I will not here enter on those cases, but
will confine myself to one special difficulty which at first appeared to
me insuperable, and actually fatal to the whole theory. I allude to
neuters, or sterile females in insect communities; for these neuters
often differ widely in instinct and structure from both the males and
the fertile females, and yet, from being sterile, they cannot propagate
their kind." (p. 289) He is candid enough to say, in conclusion, "I do
not pretend that the facts given in this chapter (on instinct)
strengthen in any great degree my theory; but none of the cases of
difficulty, to the best of my judgment, annihilate it.
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