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IMPERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 335 



caverns? or have larva, pupa, and imago each their separate king? The 

 account given us in Scripture is certainly much the most probable, that 

 the locusts have no king, though they observe as much order and regu- 

 larity in their movements as if they were under military discipline, and 

 had a ruler over them.^ Some species of ants, as we learn from the 

 admirable history of them by M. P. Huber, though they go forth by 

 common consent upon their military expeditions, yet the order of their 

 columns keeps perpetually changing ; so that those who lead the van at 

 the first setting out soon fall into the rear, and others take their place : 

 their successors do the same ; and such is the constant order of their 

 march. It seems probable, as these columns are extended to a consider- 

 able length, that the object of this successive change of leaders is to 

 convey constant intelligence to those in the rear of what is going forward 

 in the van. Whether any thing like this takes place for the regulation of 

 their motions in the innumerable locust-armies, which are sometimes co- 

 extensive with vast kingdoms ; or whether their instinct simply directs 

 them to follow the first that moves or flies, and to keep their measured 

 distance, so that, as the prophet speaks, " one does not thrust another, 

 and they walk every one in his path^," must be left to future naturalists 

 to ascertain. And I think that you will join with me in the wish that 

 travelers, who have a taste for Natural History, and some knowledge of 

 insects, would devote a share of attention to the proceedings of these 

 celebrated animals, so that we might have facts instead of fables. 



The last order of imperfect associations approaches nearer to perfect 

 societies, and is that of those insects which the social principle urges to 

 unite in some common work for the benefit of the community. 



Amongst the Coleoptera. Ateuchus pilularius, a beetle before mentioned, 

 acts under the influence of this principle. "I have attentively admired 

 their industry and mutual assisting of each other," says Catesby, " in 

 rolling those globular balls from the place where they made them to that 

 of their interment, which is usually the distance of some yards, more or 

 less. Tills they perform breech foremost, by raising their hind parts, 

 forcing along the ball with their hind feet. Two or three of them are 

 sometimes engaged in trundling one ball, which, from meeting with impedi- 

 ments from the unevenness of the ground, is sometimes deserted by them : 

 it is however attempted by others with success, unless it happens to roll 

 into some deep hollow chink, where they are constrained to leave it ; but 

 they continue their work by rolling off" the next ball that comes in their 

 way. None of them seem to know their own balls, but an equal care for 

 the whole appears to affect all the community."^ 



Many larvae also of Lepidoptera associate with this view, some of 

 which are social only during part of their existence, and others during the 

 whole of it. The first of these continue together while their united labors 

 are beneficial to them ; but when they reach a certain period of their life, 

 they disperse and become solitary. Of this kind are the caterpillars of a 

 little butterfly (Melitaa Cinxia) which devour the narrow-leaved plantain. 

 The families of these, usually amounting to about a hundred, unite to 

 form a pyramidal silken tent, containing several apartments, which is 

 pitched over some of the plants that constitute their food, and shelters 



' Proverbs, xxx. 27. '^ Joel, ii. 8. ^ Catesby's Carolina^ ii. 111. 



