Packard.] THE SOCIAL LIFE OF INSECTS. 331 



rufescois, ■which is said by Mr. Frederic Smith to enslave 

 four s[)ecies of ants. These slave hunters are totally unable 

 to perform their own labor, as they are incapacitated, as La- 

 treille tells us, "on account of the form of their jaws, and 

 the accessory parts of their mouth, either to prepare habita- 

 tions for their family, to procure food or to feed them." 



The sole motive, says Kirby, for their predatory excur- 

 sions seems to be mere laziness and hatred of labor. Tliey 

 will not move or feed themselves. Iluber shut up tliirty of 

 the slave-maker ants in a glazed box, supp]3-ing tliem with 

 j'oung of tlieir own kind and hone}'. Many of them died 

 of hunger and the rest seemed likely to, when he introduced 

 a single negro, which restored order, making a cell in the 

 earth in which it placed the young slave-holder brood and 

 then saved the lives of the survivors. 



Here we have two colonies united, each consisting of 

 three sets of individuals, but the complicated work of the 

 formicary goes on without any apparent disorder, such is 

 the perfect division of labor. Tliesc Ilelots build or repair 

 the common building, make excursions to collect food, at- 

 tend ui)on the females, feed them and the hirvre, and if the 

 weather be suitable, daily sun the eggs, larvre and pupaj. 



The love of acquisition, so common a trait with ants, as 

 seen in their storing uj) seeds and enslaving other species, 

 extends to the keeping of herds of cattle, namely, the docile 

 Aphides, which receive the Caresses of the ants and yield up 

 their honey dew with true bovine meekness. Some under- 

 ground Aphides live in ants' nests. The Aphides living pri- 

 marily on the roots of vegetables, it is a question whether 

 the ants excavate their nests around the root to which the 

 Aphides are anchored by their long beaks, or whether they 

 are introduced by tlic ants. These social creatures also go 

 so far as to keep dilTerent sorts of beetles in their nests, 

 either on the surface of the ant hill under stones, or down 

 stairs in the basement of their dwellings. When alarmed 



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