356 INSECT MISCELLANIES. 



ance of a negro, which was always most willmgly 

 accorded. In eight days the formicary was com- 

 pletely peopled, when it was placed out of doors; and 

 next day the legionaries actually made an expedition, 

 and returned with a rich booty of negro pupte from a 

 a neighbouring colony. By raising the shutters with 

 caution, he could now see everything that was going 

 forward in the interior, and he ascertained in this way 

 most of the facts which we have already detailed. 

 Amongst other things of singular interest, he likewise 

 found that there are never any negro males or females 

 in these communities, but male, female, and neuter 

 legionaries ; and the female legionary, like other 

 species of ants, is always the foundress of a colony, 

 performing in the first instance all the duties of a 

 labourer, as Latreille observed at Brive before the 

 discoveries of Huber. 



Huber concluded his experiments by bringing two 

 legionary armies into immediate combat, by placing 

 his formicary full in front of an advancing column 

 from another encampment. ' After a trifling com- 

 bat,' he says, ' which took place at the door of the 

 formicary, those in the interior went out in force, when 

 the enemy's column appeared desirous to avoid 

 battle, taking at first another direction, then return- 

 ing and re-entering their nest. Several ants from 

 the formicary put themselves in pursuit : some went 

 even as far as the enemy's garrison, where they were 

 retained ; two or three only escaped, and these, as I 

 observed, returned in great haste. The entire army 

 now lefl the formicary, and proceeded to the mixed 

 ant-hill, where I looked forward to a general battle ; 

 but when the column had arrived to within a few 

 paces of the entrance, it fell back, with the exception 

 of a small body, composed of about three hundred 

 legionary ants, who continued their route till they 

 reached the ant-hill. The legionaries assembled on 



