ANT EXPEDITIONS TO CAPTURE SLAVES. 351 



naturalists before the interesting observations of 

 Huber. Willughby, for example, in mentioning the 

 care which ants take of their pupa?, says, " they also 

 carry the aureliae of others into their nests as if they 

 were their own * ;" G ould also remarks of the wood- 

 ant (F. riifa), that '^ this species is very rapacious 

 after the vermicles (larva;) and nymphs {pnpce) of 

 other ants : if you place a parcel before or near their 

 colonies, they will, with remarkable greediness, seize 

 and carry them ofFt-" White, of Selborne, made 

 the same observation t, which must, indeed, occur to 

 every naturalist who is in the least acquainted with 

 ants. It belongs, however, exclusively to Huber to 

 have developed the use which is made of the pur- 

 loined pupce by the legionary and the sanguine 



ants. 



One of the most remarkable circumstances disco- 

 vered by Huber respecting these expeditions is, that 

 the invaders never capture the old negroes or miners, 

 aware, it should seem, of the impracticability of 

 taming tnem down to the condition of slaves. Their 

 only object is to obtain a number of pupse, when the 

 embryo-ants are in a state of repose, and consequently 

 have formed no attachment to their natal colour. 

 The city of the stranger thus becoming the only one 

 with which they are acquainted, they consider it their 

 home, and employ their natural activity in repairing 

 and enlarging it, as well as adding to its provisional 

 stores, — putting forth, in a word, the same exertions 

 which they wo'uld have done had they never been 

 captured. " Developed," says Huber, " in the 

 enemy's encampment, they afterwards become house- 

 stewards, and auxiliaries to the western tribe with 

 whom they are associated. Brought up in a strange 

 nation, not only do they live socially with their cap- 



* Rail Historia Insect. 69. 

 t Account of English Ants, p, 9 1 . X'n- 278. 



2 H 2 



