To sum up: it appears probable that the laws determining the symmetry of a form are the outcome of internal factors, and are not the result either of the direct action of the environment, or of a selective process. The finished products and not the different imperfect stages in such a process, are what the inner organization offers to the environment. While the symmetry or asymmetry may be one of the numerous conditions which determine whether a form can persist or not, yet we find that the symmetrical relations may be in some cases more perfect than the environment actually demands; and in other cases, although the form may place the organism at a certain disadvantage, it may still be able to exist in certain localities. Mutual Adaptation of Colonial Forms In the white ants, true ants, and bees, we find certain individuals of the community specialized in such a way that their modifications stand in certain useful relations to other members of the community. Amongst the bees, the workers collect the food, make the comb, and look after the young. The queen does little more than lay eggs, and the drone’s only function is to fertilize the queen. In the true ants there are, besides the workers and the queen and the males, the soldier caste. These have large thick heads and large strong jaws. On the Darwinian theory it is assumed that this caste must have an important rôle to play, for otherwise their presence as a distinct group of forms cannot be accounted for; but I do not believe it is necessary to find an excuse for their existence in their supposed utility. From the point of view of the mutation theory, their real value may be very small, but so long as their actual presence is not entirely fatal to the community they may be endured. In regard to these forms, Sharp writes:[28] “The soldiers are not alike in any two species of Termitidæ, so far as we know, and it seems impossible to ascribe the differences that exist between the soldiers of different species of Termitidæ to special adaptations for the work they have to perform.” “On the whole, it would be more correct to say that the soldiers are very dissimilar in spite of their having to perform similar work, than to state that they are dissimilar in conformity with the different tasks they carry on.” The soldiers have the same instincts as the workers, and do the same kinds of things to a certain extent. “The soldiers are not such effective combatants as the workers are.” Statements such as these indicate very strongly that the origin of this caste can have very little to do with its importance as a specialized part of the community. Footnote 28: “The Cambridge Natural History,” Vol. V, 1895.