302 INSECT MISCELLANIES. 



which they furnish to recruit the population of the 

 ant-hill, they would receive no attention nor respect 

 whatever. The males again have still less rig-ht to the 

 title of kings; and nothing could be more correct than 

 the statement of Solomon that they have " no guide, 

 overseer, or ruler*," for no individual seems en- 

 dowed with any authority over the others. Each 

 seems to act independently of its companions, and 

 yet all seem to agree in forwarding the same designs. 

 In their structures and galleries, whether mined into 

 the soil, hewn out of wood, or built of masonry t, 

 the first who conceives a plan of easy execution im- 

 mediately gives the sketch of it, and others have 

 only to continue what this has begun, inferring from 

 an inspection of its labours what they ought to 

 engage in. It would appear, also, that planning is 

 confined to no particular order, every individual 

 exercising an equal right in this, as well as in the 

 execution, or in foraging for provisions. In the still 

 more important measure of fixing upon a spot to 

 which the whole community migrate, a chance indi- 

 vidual seems to originate the measure, to which all 

 the others accede, according to Huber, without a 

 single dissentient. From some facts, however, which 

 he has elsewhere stated, as well as from several ob- 

 servations which we have made, these views seem to 

 require some modification. 



We have mentioned' above that the red ant, and 

 particularly the turf-ant {Myrinica ccespitum), are 

 seldom satisfied for any length of time with the spots 

 selected for their nests. In consequence of this they 

 are constantly pulling about and carrying their com- 

 panions to places supposed to be more eligible ; but 

 although in many cases these go quietly along, in 

 others they are quite refractory, and retaliate upon 



* Proverbs, vi. 6. 

 J See Insect Architecture, chapters xiv. and xv. 



