FEMALE ANTS. 189 



NOTE. 



That remarkable procedure of the matron ant, whereon the 

 preceding narrative is founded, is a well authenticated fact. 

 The circumstances attending it were partially noticed by Gould, 

 the historian of English ants, Linnaeus, and De Geer; and 

 observed and related with greater accuracy by Huber, part of 

 whose interesting account we shall combine with a few intro- 

 ductory remarks by a living naturalist,"* whose own testimony is 

 given to its veracity. 



" It was supposed by the ancients that all ants at a certain 

 age acquired wings ; but it was reserved for recent naturalists 

 to ascertain that it is only the males and females that are ever 

 winged, and that the latter lose them after pairing in the air, 

 as they have no longer any use for them." 



The younger Huber, by means of his artificial formicaries, 

 traced the development of the wings in the female from their 

 first commencement till he saw them stripped off by them- 

 selves, and laid aside like cast-off clothes. 

 He one day visited some ant-hills which he knew to be filled 

 with winged inhabitants, whose departure could not be far 

 distant. " Hardly/' says he, " had I reached the spot, when 

 I saw several, both males and females, pass over my head, while 

 at the ant-hill I observed others take flight, the males always 

 preceding. Of these I took eight pairs, and placed them in a 



* Rennic, in Insect Miscellanies. 



