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fly, fo it is with the Ant, which is a long Uved animal, and during 

 the whole fummer continues to lay its eggs (at leatl in my opinion), 

 and if lb, they mull be continually employed in providing food for 

 their young. And this is an innate impulfe or inllindl implanted 

 in them by Nature, for otherwife their young (which are maggots) 

 mull be llarved for want of food. 



I am aware that what I have advanced, and thefe my obferva- 

 tions will be difputed by many, and the rather, as fo much has been 

 written of the induflry and forelight of Ants in laying up llore for 

 the winter, but this I do not at all regard. I freely Ipeak my fenti- 

 ments as they occur to me ; and I think it Ls not at all improbable 

 that Ants throughout the winter, and efpecially if the cold be very 

 fevcre, can live without nouriiliment, lying motionlefs under ground 

 as other fmall animals do in the open air, fuch as the flea, the 

 weevil and others. And if we do but obferve the Ant, when in 

 autumn they devour our grapes, and take notice, if it be cold, how 

 llowly they move, we may very well conclude that, when the cold 

 increafes they may be entirely ina6live during the middle of winter. 



Some perfons would have us believe that Ants bite the human 

 fpecies, and that their bite is venomous : but this is what I could 

 never obferve; and it feems to me very plain, that the mouth of 

 an Ant is not made for any fuch purpofe, partly becaufe its pin- 

 cers, which are provided with points or teeth, and are lituated in 

 the fore part of the head at the opening of the mouth, cannot exert 

 fufficient force to penetrate through the external Ikin of our bodies, 

 and make any impreffion on the fenlitive cuticle ; for the pincers 

 are too fliort, and the teeth in them too many in number, for fo 

 fmall an animal to have the power of reaching with them the 

 fenfitive cuticle ; and in the next place, if we do but infped; all the 

 parts, of an Ant's mouth, when in motion, we fhall fee that they 

 are not of a nature calculated to do hurt to any animal. 



I have often feen an Ant produce out of its mouth four oblong 

 particles ; but they arc provided with fmall joints like thofe in the 



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