PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 351 



observations — which your partiaUty to your friend may, perhaps, induce 

 you to think not wholly devoid of interest — that it has been my fortune 

 to make. 



The societies of ants, as also of other Hymenoptcra, differ from those 

 of the Termites in having inactive larvae and pups, the neuters or workers 

 combining in themselves both the military and civil functions. Besides 

 the helpless larvse and pupas, which have no locomotive powers, these 

 societies consist of females, males, and workers. The office of the fannies, 

 at tliair first exclusion distinguished by a pair of ample wings, (which, 

 however, as you have heard, they soon cast,) is the foundation of new 

 colonies, and the furnishing of a constant supply of eggs for the mainte- 

 nance of the population in the old nests as well as in the new. These 

 are usually the least numerous part of the community.^ The office of 

 the males, which are also winged, and at the time of swarming are 

 extremely numerous, is merely the impregnation of the females : after the 

 season for this is |)ast, they die. Upon the ivorkers^ devolves, except in 

 nascent colonies, all the work, as well as the defence of the community, 

 of which they are the most numerous portion. In some societies of ants 

 the workers are of two dimensions. In the nests of jP. rufa and flava 

 such were observed by Gould, the size of one exceeding that of the other 

 about one third. ^ (In my specimens, the large workers of F. rufa are 

 nearly three times, and of F. Jlava twice, the size of the small ones.) 

 All were equally engaged in the labors of the colony. Large workers 

 were also noticed by M. P. Huber in the nests of Polyergus rufescens'^, 

 but he could not ascertain their oftice. More light, however, has been of 

 late thrown on this subject by the observations af M. Lacordaire and M. 

 Lund upon these large workers, as they occur in the nests of South 

 American ants. They have ascertained them to be strictly the soldiers, 

 which, though of a different origin, like those of the Termites before 

 described, have it expressly in charge to defend the rest of the community ; 

 for which oftice their size — full twice that of the other workers — and their 

 immense heads aad jaws in proportion, admirably adapt them. M. Lacor- 

 daire informs us that, both in Cayenne and Brazil, he has been a thousand 

 times witness of the accuracy of the facts stated by M. Lund as to the 

 military office of these large and big-headed workers of Atta cephalotes, 

 and allied species, during the -marches and excursions undertaken by the 

 society. They never mix themselves with the mass of the moving 

 columns ; but, stationed on their flanks, they are seen sometimes to march 

 forward ; then to return and halt a moment, as if to observe the troop 



1 Gould says that the males and females are nearly equal in number (p. 62.) ; but from 

 Huber's observations it seems to follow that the former are most numerous (p. 96.). 



2 That the neuter ants, like those of the hive-bee, are imperfectly organized females, 

 appears from the following observation of M. Huber (Nouv. Observ. &c." ii. 443.)— "Les 

 fourmis nous ont encore offert a cet cgard une analogic tresfrappante ; & la vorito, nous 

 n'avoas jamais vu pondre les ouvrieres, mais nousavons ete tcmoiiis de leur accouplement. 

 Ce fait pourroit etrc atte.ste par plusieurs membres de la Societe d'Histoire Naiurelle de 

 Geneve, t\ qui nous I'avons fait voir; I'approche <lu male etoit toujours suivie de la mort 

 de I'ouvriere ; leur conformation ne permet done pas qu'elles deviennenl meres, mais 

 I'instinct du male prouve du moins que ce&ont des femelles." 



3 Gould, 103. 



* M. Huber calls this an apterous female ; yet he could not discover that they laid eggs ; 

 and he owns that they more nearly resembled the workers than the females, and that he 

 should have considered them as such, had he seen them mix wiih them in their excursions. — 

 Huber, p. 251. 



