THE HETEROGYNA. 253 



prone to indulge in the dolce far niente. The obser- 

 vations that have been published upon these interesting 

 little creatures are so voluminous, and every point in 

 their history is so wonderful, that if the whole of this 

 volume were to be devoted to its consideration, the 

 reader would still have but an imperfect account of 

 their proceedings. I shall therefore confine myself 

 to the description of a few of the leading features in 

 their ceconomy, referring the reader to the writings 

 of other authors* for further details. 



All the species of Ants live in societies of greater 

 or less extent, consisting of individuals of three kinds, 

 males, females, and neuters, as they are commonly 

 termed, although the two latter kinds may with more 

 propriety be denominated perfect and imperfect fe- 

 males ; the so-called neuters being in reality females, 

 in which, probably from some difference of food and 

 treatment in the larva state, the sexual organs have 

 remained undeveloped. These, which are also known 

 as workers, from their performing all the labours 

 necessary for the support of the highly complicated 

 society of which they form a part, are always present 

 in the nests, together with a few specimens of the 

 perfect females, but the males are only found in the 

 community for a short time during the summer, when 

 they make their appearance in the nest in great num- 

 bers, together with a multitude of females, in whose 

 company they quit the nest, and never return to its 

 friendly shelter. 



* An admirable general description of the oeconomy of Ants 

 will be found in the Introduction to Entomology of Kirby and 

 Spence, Letters XI., XV. and XVII. The cheap edition of this 

 admirable work, recently published, will place it within the reach 

 of all. 



