360 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



intelligence to tbeir compatriots, whom they even carried suspended upon 

 their jaws (their usual mode of transporting each other) to the spot, 

 till hundreds might be seen thus laden with their friends. 



If ants feel the force of love, they are equally susceptible of the 

 emotions of anger ; and when they are menaced or attacked, no insects 

 show a greater degree of it. Providence, moreover, has furnished them 

 with weapons and faculties which render it extremely formidable to their 

 insect enemies, and sometimes, as I have related in a former letter, a 

 great annoyance to man himself. Two strong mandibles arm their mouth, 

 with which they sometimes fix themselves so obstinately to the object of 

 their attack, that they will sooner be torn limb from limb than let go their 

 hold ; and after their battles, the head of a conquered enemy may often 

 be seen suspended to the antennae or legs of the victor, a trophy of his 

 valor, which, however troublesome, he will be compelled to carry about 

 with him to the day of his death. Their abdomen is also furnished with 

 a poison-bag {loteriurn), in which is secreted a powerful and venomous 

 fluid, long celebrated in chemical researches, and called formic acid^, 

 which when their enemy is beyond the reach of their mandibles (I speak 

 here particularly of the hill-ant, or F. rufa), standing erect on their hind 

 legs, they ejaculate from their anus with considerable force, so that from 

 the surface of the nest ascends a shower of poison, exhaling a strong 

 sulphureous odor, sufficient to overpower or repel any insect or small 

 animal. Such is the fury of some species, that with the acid, according 

 to Gould^, they sometimes partly eject, drawing it back however directly, 

 the poison-bag itself. If a stick be stuck into one of the nests of the 

 hill-ant, it is so saturated with the acid as to retain the scent for many 

 hours. A more formidable weapon arms the species of the genus Mtjr- 

 mica Latr. ; for, besides the poison-bag, they are furnished with a sting ; 

 and their aspect is also often rendered peculiarly revolting by the extra- 

 ordinary length of their jaws, and by the spines which defend their head 

 and trunk. 



But weapons without valor are of but little use ; and this is one distin- 

 guishing feature of our pigmy race. Their courage and pertinacity are 

 unconquerable, and often sublimed into the most inconceivable rage and 

 fury. It makes no difterence to them whether they attack a mite or an 

 elephant ; and man himself instils no terror into their warlike breasts. 

 Point your finger towards any individual of F. rufa, instead of running 

 away, it instantly faces about ; and, that it may make the most of itself, 

 stiffening its legs into a nearly straight line, it gives its body the utmost 

 elevation it is capable of, and thus 



" Collecting all its might dilated stands " 

 prepared to repel your attack. Put your finger a little nearer, it immedi- 

 ately opens its jaws to bite you, and rearing upon its hind legs bends its 

 abdomen between them, to ejaculate its venom into the wound. ^ 



This angry people, so well armed and so courageous, we may readily 

 imagine, are not always at peace with their neighbors : causes of dissen- 

 sion may arise to light the flame of war between the inhabitants of nests 



1 This acid may be prepared artificially, and with all the properties of that produced by 

 ants, by distillation from a mixture of sulphuric acid, black oxide of manganese, and starch. 

 * P. 34. ^ See Fourcroy, A/males du Museum, No. 5. 343. 



