GOVERNMENT OF ANTS. 299 



similar homage to that evinced by bees for their 

 queen. Crowds eagerly press around her, present- 

 ing her with food, and conducting her through the 

 steep and difficult passages, to the galleries, by car- 

 rying her in their mandibles, in which case she coils 

 herself up into a round ball, so as to incommode her 

 bearer as little as possible. ' The eggs,' says Huber, 

 ^ taken up by the labourers, at the instant of their 

 being laid, are collected around her. When she seeks 

 repose, a group of ants environ her. Several females 

 live in the same nest ; they show no rivalry ; each 

 has her court ; they pass each other uninjured, and 

 sustain in common the population of the ant-hill ; 

 but they possess no power, which, it would seem, 

 entirely lodges with the workers.' * 



' You may sometimes,' says Gould, ' expect to 

 find two queens in the same colony. I have once 

 or twice met with three. They most usually reside 

 in the same lodgment, and live together in perfect 

 harmony and union.' We have recently visited a 

 numerous colony of the red ant [Mijrmica rubra) ^ 

 in which we saw no less than eight females without 

 wings, all residing in the same large chamber, and 

 no (apparently) distinct group of attendants round 

 each, though a crowded body of work- rs indis- 

 criminately surrounded the whole eight. In the 

 under-ground chambers, which we did not open, 

 there might, perhaps, have been others, f Gould 

 further tells us, that ' in whatever apartment a 

 queen-ant condescends to be present, she commands 

 obedience and respect. A universal gladness spreads 

 itself through the whole cell, which is expres?rrl by 

 particular acts of joy and exultation. They havo a 

 peculiar way of skipping, leaping, and stanciing 

 upon their hlad legs, and prancing with the others. 

 These frolicks they make use of both to congratulate 



* Page 133. + J. R. 



