356 INSECT MISCELLANIES. 



ance of a neg;ro, which was always most wilh'ng^ly 

 accorded. In eio;ht days the formicary was com 

 pletely peopled, when it was placed out of doors; and 

 next day the legionaries actually made an expedition, 

 and returned with a rich booty of negro pnpae from 

 a neighbouring colony. By raising the shutters with 

 caution, he could now see everything that was going 

 forward in the interior, and he ascertained in this 

 way most of the facts which we have already de- 

 tailed. Amongst other things of singular interest, 

 he likewise found that there are never any negro 

 males or females in these communities, but male, 

 female, and neuter legionaries ; and the female 

 legionary, like other species of ants, is always the 

 foundress of a colony, performing in the first instance 

 all the duties of a labourer, as Latreille observed at 

 Brive before the discoveries of Huber. 



Huber concluded his experiments by bringing two 

 legionary armies into immediate combat, by placing 

 his formicary full in front of an advancing column 

 from another encampment. "After a trifling com- 

 bat," he says, " which took place at the door of the 

 formicary, those in the interior went out in force, when 

 the enemy's column appeared desirous to avoid, 

 battle, taking at first another direction, then return- 

 ing and re-entering their nest. Several ants from 

 the formicary put themselves in pursuit : some went 

 even as far as the enemy's garrison, where they were 

 retained ; two or three only escaped, and these, as I 

 observed, returned in great haste. The entire army 

 now left the formicary, and proceeded to the mixed 

 ant-hill, where I looked forward to a general battle ; 

 but when the column had arrived to within a few 

 paces of the entrance, it fell back, with the exception 

 of a small body, composed of about three hundred 

 legionary ants, who continued their route till they 

 reached the ant-hill. The legionaries assembled on 



