( 2fi ) 



the firil mentioned maggots changed into the form of a cryfalis 

 (of which I faw great numbers, lying among the maggots), I could 

 not, among thefe laft maggots, difcern a fmgle cryfahs ; but I faw, 

 among them, a great nvimber of what are called Ants' eggs, which, 

 at one end, had a black fpot. A parcel of thefe I brought home 

 with me ; and, upon opening them, I found, in fome of them, 

 a perfe6l Ant, of a colour inclining to black, in others of them, an 

 Ant quite perfeft, but white. 



The Ihell, or covering of this Ant, did not appear to me, 

 to be either a membrane, or the Ikin of the maggot, which it 

 had ftripped off in undergoing its change, for it was quite fmooth, 

 and without any wrinkle. And, as I could not imagine how this 

 covering was formed about the Ant, I put fome of the moft perfe6l 

 maggots into a clean glafs; and, when they had been in it for two days, 

 I found them to differ much from the firft mentioned ones. For 

 thefe latter ones had begun to Ipin, as filk worms do, and, when the 

 thread was about as long as two hairs breadth, they faftened it, with 

 their mouths, to the threads they had already fpun (doubtlefs, by 

 means of fome glutinous matter proceeding out of their mouths) ; 

 and, in this fpinning, I did not perceive them move more than their 

 heads and the two joints of their body next the head : and, after two 

 days, they had proceeded fo far in their fpinning that the maggot, 

 within the cafe, was no longer to be difcerned. When thele 

 had remained in the glafs in my clofet, the fpace of four days, I ob- 

 ferved, that forne of the Ants in them had gained fo much ftrength 

 as to break through the web or cafe in which they lay, and 

 run about the glafs. 



Hence it alfo appeared to me, that thefe latl maggots, in their 

 change into a cryliilis, or an Ant, not only at once aHlime all their 

 limbs, and the complete fhape of their bodies, but alfo that, after 

 this change, they never grow any larger, unlefs they undergo 

 a farther change, and become flying infeds. So that we fee the 

 error of thofe who fay, that, in what they call the eggs of Ants, they 



