366 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



When, from their proximity, they are more readily to be come at than 

 those of the negroes, they sometimes assault with the same view the nest 

 of another species of ant, which I shall call the miners (jP. cunicidaria). 



This species being more courageous than the other, on this account the 

 rufescent host marches to the attack in closer order than usual, moving 

 with astonishing rapidity. As soon as they begin to enter their habitation, 

 myriads of the miners rushing out fall upon them with great fury ; while 

 others, well aware of their purpose, making a passage through the midst 

 of them, carry off in their mouth the larvae and pupae. The surface of 

 the nest thus becomes the scene of an obstinate conflict, and the assailants 

 are often deprived of the prey which they had seized. The miners dart 

 upon them, fight them foot to foot, dispute every inch of their territory, 

 and defend their progeny with unexampled courage and rage. When the 

 rufescents, laden with pillage, retire, they do it in close order — a precau- 

 tion highly necessary, since their valiant enemies, pursuing them, impede 

 their progress for a considerable distance from their residence. 



During these combats the pillaged ant-hill presents in miniature the 

 spectacle of a besieged city ; hundreds of its inhabitants may be seen 

 making their escape, and carrying off in different directions, to a place of 

 security, some the young brood, and others their females that are newly 

 excluded : but when the danger is wholly passed, they bring them back 

 to their city, the gates of which they barricade, and remain in great 

 numbers near them to guard the entrance. 



Formica sanguinea, as I observed above, is another of the slave-making 



informed me that there was a nest of the rufescent ants in the Bois de Boulogne, to which 

 place he afterwards was so good as to accompany me. We went on the 25th of June, 1817. 

 The day was excessively hot and sultry. A little before five in the afternoon we began 

 our search. At first we could not discern a single ant in motion. In a minute or two, 

 however^ my friend directed my attention to one individual — two or three more next ap- 

 peared — and soon a numerous army was to be seen wmdmg through the long grass of a 

 low ridge in which was their formicary. Just at the entrance of the wood from Paris, on 

 the right hand and near the road, is a bare place paled in for the Sunday amusement of the 

 lower orders — to this the ants directed their march, and upon entering it divided into two 

 columns, which traversed it rapidly and with great apparent eagerness ; all the while explor- 

 ing the ground with their antennae, as beagles with their noses, evidently as if in pursuit of 

 game. Those in the van, as Huber also observed, kept perpetually falling back into the 

 main body. When they had passed this inclosure, they appeared for some time to be at a loss, 

 making no progress, but only coursing about : but alter a k'^ minutes' delay, as if they had 

 received some intelligence, they resumed their march and soon arrived at a negro nest, which 

 ihey entered by one or two apertures. We could not observe that any negroes were expect- 

 ing their attack outside the nest, but in a short time a few came out at another opening, 

 and seemed to be making their escape. Perhaps some conflict might have taken place 

 within the nest, in the interval between the appearance of these negroes and the entry of 

 their assailants. However this might be, in a few minutes one of the latter made its ap- 

 pearance with a pupa in its mouth ; it was followed by three or four more ; and soon the 

 whole army began lo emerge as fast as it could, almost every individual carrying its bur- 

 then. Most thai I observed seemed lo have pupsc. I then traced the expedition back to 

 the spot from which I first saw them set out, which according to my steps was about 156 

 feet trom the negro formicary. The whole business was transacted in Utile more than an 

 hour. Though I could trace the ants back to a certain spot in the ridge before mentioned, 

 where they first appeared in the long grass, I did not succeed in finding the entrance to their 

 nest, so that I was deprived of the pleasure of seeing the mixed society. As we dined at 

 anauberge close to the spot, 1 proposed renewing my researches alter dinner; but a violent 

 tempest of thunder and rain, though I attempted it, prevented my succeeding; and after- 

 wards I had no opportunity of levisiiing the place. 



M. LatreiUe very justly observes that it is physically impossible for the rufescent ants 

 {Pohjergiis rufescois), on account of the form of their jiws and the accessory pans of their 

 mouth, either to prepare habitations for their family, to procure food, or to feed them. — 

 Considerations nouvelks, See, p. 40y. 



