NOTES ON THE ANT OF SCRIPTDRE. 183 



that, notwithstanding all the assurances we have to the contrary from an 

 immense multitude of Jewish, Greek, Roman, Arabian, and even English 

 Naturalists and Authors. Whence arose this second mistake? with great prob- 

 ability, it may be replied, '"from the Ant's being observed to open the cuticle 

 of the chrysalis to let out the inclosed insect," — to bite off the end of the 

 temporary coffin in whigh the young Ant lies. 



Such is the answer to the two long-received and deep-rooted opinions, which 

 have been given by some writers. It would appear then from such statements as 

 those now made, that no just ground exists for the current belief,- which seems 

 to receive another and still more decisive blow from the fact, that repeated 

 observations of many different species of the Ant tribe {Formicid(je,) have 

 failed to confirm the general belief, and minute examination has proved that, 

 of the multitude of Ants with which Entomologists have become acquainted 

 in various parts of the world, not one species stores up its food in the way 

 supposed. 



Still it was found that some explanation of Solomon's language was 

 required. And the way in which the difficulty was surmounted was this: — 

 The majority of writers on the subject, coincided in a great measure with 

 the opinion expressed in Kirby and Spence's Entomology, that the commonly 

 received interpretation of the Ant's storing up food had been ^'fathered 

 upon the words of Solomon rather than fairly deduced from them." They 

 farther argued that as it has been ascertained "beyond a doubt that no 

 European Ants, hitherto properly examined, feed on corn or any other, kind 

 of grain" and that as "no species of Ant has been found with food of any 

 kind laid up in its nest" it is highly probable that the habits of foreign Ants, 

 and especially of the Formicans of Palestine are in this respect similar. 



x\nd besides this argument from analogy they proceed to offer one or two 

 others, very plausible and to many people quite convincing. They are such 

 as the following: — Exotic Ants, as the Termites or White Ants are carnivorous; 

 their carnivorous propensities having been fully tested on innumerable occa- 

 sions, an Italian Missionary for example bearing witness that while at Congo, 

 he was informed that a cow in her stall has been known to be devoured 

 by them. Many other instances, well authenticated, have been given by va- 

 rious travellers; the reader who wishes to see them may consult the "Penny 

 Cyclopaedia" and the ^^Encyclopaedia Britannica;" other species subsist entirely 

 on the saccharine exudations which are given forth in such abundance by many 

 trees; while every one knows that Ants, foreign and domestic, have what 

 have been termed their milch Icine, the aphides or plant lice which every one 

 has seen with sorrow covering the buds of a favourite rose, or swarming on 

 the leaves of a fine geranium, from whose bodies they extract, by a remark- 

 able instinct, the sweet juices with which they are distended. The liev. J. 

 F. Denham, in the "Biblical Cyclopaedia," urges another strong presumptive 

 argument to this effect: — The Ants in this country grow torpid in winter, 

 and consequently require no magazine of provisions, but their relations in the 

 VOL. rv. . 2 B 



