Instinct Changes in Miners

Abstract

The mining habit represents a degree of specialisation, which among phytophagous insects is only exceeded by gall-producers, and also by parasitic insects. We have seen how this specialised habit is linked with a whole series of morphological and physiological adaptations, and that modifications have occurred to entire organs, rendering any other type of life impossible for the insect concerned. Despite these extensive modifications, the mining habit has not with every species become rigidly automatic, permitting of no flexibility in accordance with changes in external influences. Even among miners we find that the life patterns assumed by each species may vary when new external factors arise. Detailed study is constantly bringing forth fresh evidence to prove that within certain limitations the fixed instincts of mining larvae may be changed. A wide field of activity lies open here for the minologist and if the variations in mines of the same species are carefully observed, there will be constant opportunities for noting adaptations to changed environmental influences even in the living conditions of miners.

The online version of the original chapter can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-7196-8_38