TCD MS 10516 folio 72 recto
[12th October 1916] dash away and escape some danger. But I do not think that this is the case. The reason of these whirlings and hurried convolutions is the desire to maintain the group intact. For these beetles, like the far more highly-endowed ants and bees, possess a certain power of communication. They are, in their sinuous motions, continually touching one another and, by repeated contact, each is recognising its fellow and keeping within the common group. Watch a few excited beetles coming in contact with a quiet group and see the flurry spread through the whole throng; or see a lost insect, full of commotion, suddenly calmed on discovering its group, and much doubt will not remain that these creatures can communicate one with the other. Any wave, an advance of an insect too far into the current,