818 INSECTA. 



enable them to enlarge the sphere of their industry, have a greater choice of 

 material and a wider range of action. Thus the dwellings of the hornet are 

 formed of a light papyraceous substance, admirably adapted in the light- 

 ness of the material for being suspended in the air, and as wonderfully con- 

 structed within, for the number of its inhabitants ; while the bees collect a 

 resinous substance, inpermeable to moisture, and capable from its ductility, 

 of being moulded into any form. 



In the societies of insects which exist in a mixed form, that is, where there 

 are workers of one or two other species, the internal economy and arrange- 

 ments are so wonderful, that, unless the fact had been witnessed and related 

 by such naturalists as Humboldt and Huber, it would scarcely have com- 

 manded belief. The workers of different species found in these warlike 

 communities, taken by force in their early age, from neighboring ant-hills, 

 become in their perfect state the auxiliaries of the captors or their slaves. But 

 all the neuters of these communities have neither the same form nor func- 

 tions ; for some which M. Huber distinguishes by the name of Amazons, have 

 long, narrow, arched mandibles without dentations, which, from their form, 

 are neither proper for carrying nor preparing the materials of their habita- 

 tion, and are evidently rather constructed as arms, for offence and defence, 

 than as tools for mechanical arts. These individuals are, therefore, intend- 

 ed by nature for warriors ; to fight seems their strongest predilection ; 

 and the rearing of their young, the most general instinctive feeling of 

 animals, is in their case committed to the care of strangers whom they have 

 taken captive. The other working ants do not take a part in the predatory 

 excursions, unless driven to it by extreme want. The Amazonian ants, at 

 a certain hour, quit their dwelling, and march in close column, more or less 

 numerous, according to circumstances, towards the ant-hill previously recon- 

 noitred — fight their way to its recesses, in spite of opposition — sieze in 

 their mouths the larvae and pupa? of the neuters or workers, and, putting 

 themselves again in marching order, return with their captives to their own 

 capitol. It is upon the species named F. fusca, that they chiefly exercise 

 their power. M. Huber, led by a very striking analogy, compares the cap- 

 tured ants, retained as workers by these warlike hordes, to the Helots of the 

 Greeks and Romans, or to the negro slaves of modern Europeans. 



The Formica san guinea affords an instance where all the Avorkers are of sim- 

 ilar forms, and engage in the same labors; and, though they do not seem to 

 have a kind of standing army among them, like the Amazonian ants, follow 

 the same warlike propensities. M. Huber has detailed the tactics of these 

 small animals from observations made in the cantons of Switzerland, where 

 the «peci«s is common, and demonstrated that the scourges of war and 

 stavery are not confined alone to human beings. The bee, however, presents 

 instinctive faculties of a more amiable nature. It has no carnivorous pr»* 

 pensities ; and while some of the other insects which live in societies, sua 

 sist by rapine and destruction, this interesting animal pursues its peaceful 



