408 INSECT TRANSFORMATIONS. 



The younger Huber has given an interesting ac- 

 count of the hybernation of ants, which differs in 

 some particulars from what we have observed of the 

 wood-ant ; but he speaks of ants in general. The 

 subject, indeed, derives importance from the popular 

 opinion, that they amass wheat and other grain as a 

 winter store, having been refuted by the experiments 

 of Gould and other accurate observers. ' We 

 have endeavoured,' says M. Huber, ' to ex])lain 

 their preservation, by supposing them to fall into a 

 state of torpor at this period. They, in fact, be- 

 came torpid during the intense cold, but when the 

 season is not very severe, the depth of their nest 

 guards them from the effects of the frost : they do 

 not become torpid unless the temperature is reduced 

 to the second degree of Reaumur under the freezing 

 point, (27° Fahrenheit.) I have occasionally seen 

 them walking upon the snow, engaged in their cus- 

 tomary avocations. In so reduced a temperature, 

 they would be exposed to the horrors of famine, 

 were they not supplied with food by the pucerons, 

 who, by an admirable concurrence of circumstances, 

 which we cannot attribute to chance, become torpid 

 at precisely the same degree of cold as the ants, and 

 recover from this state also at the same time : the 

 ants, therefore, always find them when they need 

 them. 



^ Those ants that do not possess the knowledge of 

 the mode of assembling these insects, are, at least, 

 acquainted with their retreat ; they follow them to the 

 feet of the trees and the branches of the shrubs they 

 before frequented, and pass at the first degree of frost 

 along the hedges, following the paths which con- 

 duct to these insects. They bring back to the re- 

 public a small quantity of honey ; a very little sufficing 

 for their support in winter. As soon as the ants 

 recover from their torpid state, they venture forth to 



