He might very well collaborate, at least as labourer; he could at least gather together the materials for the more intelligent mother to place in position.

The true motive of his idleness is ineptitude.
It is a curious thing that the Hymenoptera, the most skilful of all industrial insects, know nothing of paternal labour.

The male of the genus, in whom we should expect the requirements of the young to develop the highest aptitudes, is as useless as a butterfly, whose family costs so little to establish.

The actual distribution of instinct upsets our most reasonable previsions.
It upsets our expectations so completely that we are surprised to find in the dung-beetle the noble prerogative which is lacking in the bee tribe.

The mates of several species of dung-beetle keep house together and know the worth of mutual labour.