94? PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



here at first they dejoosit their recruits, males, females, 

 and brood, which they afterwards conduct to the final 

 settlement. These intermediate stations sometimes be- 

 come permanent nests, which however maintain a con- 

 nexion with the capital city *. 



While the recruiting is proceeding it appears to occa- 

 sion no sensation in the original nest ; all goes on in it as 

 usual, and the ants that are not yet recruited pursue their 

 ordinary occupations : whence it is evident that the change 

 of station is not an enterprise undertaken by the whole 

 community. Sometimes many neuters set about this 

 business at the same time, which gives a short existence 

 (for in the end they all reunite into one) to many sepa- 

 rate formicaries. If the ants dislike their new city, they 

 quit it for a third, and even for a fourth : and what is re- 

 markable, they will sometimes return to their original 

 one before they are entirely settled in the new station ; 

 when the recruiting goes in opposite directions, and the 

 pairs pass each other on the road. You may stop tlie 

 emigration for the present, if you can arrest the first re- 

 cruiter, and take away his recruit ''. 



I shall now relate to you some other portions of 

 Myrmidonian History, which, though perhaps not so 

 striking and wonderful as the preceding details, are not 

 devoid of interest, and will serve to exemplify their in- 

 credible diligence, labour, and ingenuity. 



In this country it is commonly in March, earlier or 



* Walking one day early in July in a spot where I used to notice a 

 single nest of Formica riifa, I observed that a new colony had been 

 formed of considerable magnitude; and between it and the original 

 nest were six or seven smaller settlements. 



^ See Huber, chap. iv. § 3. 



