PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 33 



the nurseries, and feeding the young larvae till they are 

 old enough to take care of themselves. They are di- 

 stinguished from the soldiers by their diminutive size, 

 by their round heads and shorter mandibles. 



2. The nymphs or pupse. These were not noticed by 

 Smeathman, who mistook the neuters for them : — they 

 differ in nothing from the larvae, and probably are equally 

 active, except that they have rudiments of wings, or 

 rather the wings folded up in cases {Pterothcae). They 

 were first observed by Latreille; nor did they escape 

 the author of the MS. above alluded to, who mistook 

 them for a different kind of larvas. 



3. The neuters^ erroneously called by Smeathman 

 pupse. These are much less numerous than the work- 

 ers, bearing the proportion of one to one hundred, and 

 exceeding them greatly in bulk. They are also distin- 

 guishable by their long and large head, armed with very 

 long subulate mandibles. Their office is that of sentinels ; 

 and when the nest is attacked, to them is committed the 

 task of defending it. These neuters are quite unlike those 

 in the Hi/menoptera perfect societies, which seem to be a 

 kind of abortive females, and there is nothing analogous 

 to them in any other department of Entomology. 



4. and 5. Males and females, or the insects arrived at 

 their state of perfection, and capable of continuing the 

 species. There is only one of each in every separate 

 society ; they are exempted from all participation in the 

 labours and employments occupying the rest of the com- 

 munity, that they may be wholly devoted to the furnish- 

 ing of constant accessions to the population of the colo- 

 ny. Though at their first disclosure from the pupa they 

 have four wings, like the female ants tliey soon cast 



VOL. II. D 



