PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 365 



the black colonies from being pillaged when they contain only male and 

 female brood, which would be theii* total destruction, without being any 

 benefit to their assailants, to whom neuters alone are useful. 



Their time of sallying forth is from two in the afternoon till five, but 

 more generally a little before five: the weather, however, must be fine, 

 and the thermometer must stand at above 36° in the shade. Previously 

 to marching there is reason to think that they send out scouts to explore 

 the vicinity ; upon whose return they emerge from their subterranean city, 

 directing their course to the quarter from which the scouts came. They 

 have various preparatory signals, such as pushing each other with the 

 mandibles or forehead, or playing with the antennce ; the object of which 

 is probably to excite their martial ardor, to give the word for marching, or 

 to indicate the route they are to take. The advanced guard usually 

 consists of eight or ten ants ; but no sooner do tl>ese get beyond the rest 

 than they move back, wheeling round in a semicircle, and mixing with 

 the main body, while others succeed to their station. They have " no 

 captain, overseer, or ruler," as Solomon observes, their army being com- 

 posed entirely of neuters, without a single female; thus all in their turns 

 take their place at the head, and then, retreating towards the rear, make 

 room for others. This is the usual order of their march ; and the object 

 of it may be to communicate intelligence more readily from one part of 

 the column to another. 



When winding through the grass of a meadow they have proceeded to 

 thirty feet or more from their own habitation, they disperse; and, like 

 dogs with their noses, explore the ground with their antennae to detect the 

 traces of the game they are pursuing. The negro formicary, the object 

 of their search, is soon discovered : some of the inhabitants are usually 

 keeping guard at the avenues, which dart upon the foremost of their 

 assailants with inconceivable fury. The alarm increasing, crowds of its 

 swarthy inhabitants rusii forth from every apartment: but their valor is 

 exerted in vain ; for the besiegers, precipitating themselves upon them, 

 by the ardor of their attack compel them to retreat within, and seek shel- 

 ter in the lowest story ; great numbers entering with them at the gates, 

 while others with their mandibles make a breach in the walls, through 

 which the victorious army marches into the besieged city. In a few 

 minutes, by the same passages, they as hastily evacuate it, each carrying 

 off in its mouth a larva or pupa which it has seized in spite of its 

 unhappy guardians. On their return home with their spoil, they pursue 

 exactly the route by which they went to the attack. Their success on 

 these expeditions is rather the result of their impetuosity, by which they 

 damp the courage of the negroes, than of their superior strength, though 

 they are a larger animal ; for sometimes a very small body of them, not 

 more than 150, has been known to succeed in their attack and to carry 

 off their booty. ^ 



* Since the publication of the first edition of this volume I have met with fresh confirma- 

 tion of the extraordinary history here related. Having been induced to visit Paris, and 

 calling upon IM. Latreille (so justly celebrated as one of the first entomologists of the age, 

 and to whom I feel infinitely indebted fortlie friendly attentions which he paid lo me during 

 my too short stay in that metropolis), he assured me, that he had verified all the principal 

 facts advanced by Huber. He has also said the same in his Considirations nouveUts et gdn^- 

 rales sur les Insectes oivant en Suci6t6. (Mem. du Mus. iii. 407.) At the same time he 



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