124 MATERNAL DEVOTION. 



the following is only a simpler version of the story of our 

 devoted Fuscan nurse : A worker Ant, severed in two, has 

 been observed with its upper half to carry to the nest no less 

 than ten of the pupae or larvae of the community; and 

 numerous are the like traits related of their devotion to their 

 charges. When their cities are besieged (says Huber), they are 

 sometimes seen by hundreds carrying off their young to pre- 

 serve them from the enemy, bearing them in their jaws to the 

 summit of neighbouring plants, or hiding them beneath their 

 foliage ; and when the danger seems overpassed, then do they 

 take them home again, barricading the gates and guarding the 

 approaches. The males of the Ant-hill, like those of the Bee- 

 hive, are nonentities, except in the paternal character, of which, 

 however, all the duties devolve, as we have seen, upon the 

 indefatigable workers. Their maternal majesties, or queens, are 

 more estimable personages, having, as foundresses of colonies, 

 been in their time meritorious hard-workers themselves, 

 how r ever they may enjoy, afterwards, the sweets of well-earned 

 leisure. Both the last named classes (the aristocracy of their 

 tribe) are accustomed to keep their state in private till after 

 midsummer, when they often exhibit themselves mingled with 

 the vulgar herd on the domes of, or adjacent to, their cities. 

 Seen thus associate, they may be known as Ants by their 

 company, but they differ so widely from the working sisterhood, 

 not only in possessing wings, but in shape, size, and some- 

 times colour, as to appear like insects of another kind. 



