246 NORTH AMERICAN INSECTS. 



very slowly, and remain several years in the larva state, 

 they often become injurious to whole forests of trees. When 

 fully grown, they are about one inch long, when they make 

 their cocoon ; and in a few days after undergo their final 

 transformation into the perfect insect. 



We now come to a much more wonderful, and, with one 

 exception perhaps, the most interesting genus of the whole 

 order Hymenoptera — a genus of world-wide notoriety, and 

 one that seems to partake in a remarkable degree of that 

 intelligence which naturally belongs to the highest order of 

 animals. We mean 



TJie Ants (Formica). 



These insects are found in all parts of the globe, but in 

 greater number and of larger size in the tropics, where 

 their vitality is not affected by cold weather. The genus 

 Formica contains a great number of black, yellow, red, and 

 brown species, of very different sizes, some being only two 

 or three lines, while others are an inch long. Their head is 

 broad, thorax small, and hind body large ; their upper jaw 

 is very wide, like a broad forceps ; their antennae small, of 

 a triangular or elbow shape, similar to those of the Snout- 

 beetle ; their eyes are very small, and the sting is some- 

 times wanting. 



Each species live in a social community by themselves, 

 in ant-hills, and is composed of males and females, who are 

 provided with wings ; and workers, who have no wings. The 

 males and females, of which there is a great number, have 

 nothing to do but to enjoy themselves and multiply their 

 species. The wingless workers do all the necessary in-and- 

 out-of-door business : they build their habitation, or ant- 

 hill, of earth, pine-wood leaves, and woody fibres, with 

 which they also manufacture their subterranean caverns: 

 they feed the young ones, and carry the cocoons from one 



