PERFECT SOCIETIES OF IIN^ SECTS. 313 



live Termites: — I shall next introduce }oa to social insects, concerning 

 most of wliich you liave probably conceived a more favourable opinion — 

 I mean those which constitute the second class of perfect societies, whose 

 workers are not larvte, but neuters. These all belong to the Hijmcnoptcra 

 order of Linne : — there are four kinds of Insects in this order (which 

 you will find as fertile in the instructors of mankind, as you have seen it 

 to be in our benefactors), that, varying considerably from each other in 

 their ])roccedings as social animals, separately merit your attention ; 

 namely, ants, wasps, and hornets, humble-bees, and the hive-bee. I begin 

 with the first. 



Full of interesting traits as are the history and econora}' of the white 

 ants, and however earnestly they maj' induce you to wish you could be a 

 spectator of them, yet they scarcely exceed those of an industrious tribe 

 of insects which are constantly passing under our eye. The ant has 

 attracted universal notice, and been celebrated from the earliest ages, both 

 by sacred and profane writers, as a pattern of prudence, foresight, wisdom, 

 and diligence. Upon Solomon's testimony in their favour I have en- 

 larged before ; and for those of other ancient writers, I must refer you to 

 the learned Bochart, who has collected them in his Hierozoicon. 



In reading what the ancients say on this subject, we must be careful, 

 however, to separate truth from error, or we shall attribute much more to 

 ants than of riglit belongs to them. Who does not smile when he reads 

 of ants that emulate the wolf in size, the dog in shape, the lion in its feet, 

 and the leopard in its skin — ants, whose employment is to mine for gold, 

 and from wiiose vengeance the furtive Indian is constrained to fly on the 

 switt camel's backV^ But when we find the writers of all nations and 

 ages unite in affirming, that, having deprived it of the [)ower of vegetating, 

 ants store up grain in their nests, we feel disposed to give larger credit to an 

 assertion, which, at first sight, seems to savour more of fact than of fable, 

 and does not attribute more sagacity and foresight to these insects than in 

 other instances they are found to |)Ossess. Writers in general, therefore, 

 who have considered this subject, and some even of very late date, have 

 taken it for granted that the ancients were correct in this notion. But 

 when observers of nature began to examine the manners and economy of 

 these creatures more narrowl3', it was found, at least with respect to the 

 European species of ants, that no such hordes of grain were made b\' them, 

 and, in fact, that they had no magazines in their nests in which provisions 

 of any kind were stored up. It was therefore surmised that the ancients, 

 observing them carry about their pupa;, which, in shape, size, and colour, 

 not a little resemble a grain of corn, and the ends of which tiiey sometimes 

 pull open to let out the enclosed insect, mistook the one for the other, 

 and this action for depriving the grain of the corculum. Mr. Gould, our 

 countryman, was one of the first historians of the ant who discovered that 

 they did not store up corn; and since his time naturalists have generally 

 subscribed to that opinion. 



Till the manners of exotic ants are more accurately explored, it would, 

 however, be rash to afhrm that no ants have magazines of provisions; for 

 although, during the cold of the winters in this country, they remain in a 

 state of torpidity, and have no need of food, yet in warmer regions, during 

 the rainy seasons, when they are probably confined to their nests, a store 



1 Bochart, Hierozoic. ii. 1. iv. c. 22. 



