364 AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG. 



concerns — he who never deigned to open liis eyes to 

 any other part of their economy — must yet have ob- 

 served, even in spite of himself, the remarkable attach- 

 ment which the inhabitants of a disturbed nest of anls 

 manifest tow ards certain small while oblong bodies with 

 which it is usually stored. He must have perceived 

 that the ants are much less intently occupied with pro-^ 

 viding for their own safety, than in conveying off these 

 little bodies to a place of security. To effect this pur- 

 pose the whole community is in motion, and no danger 

 can divert them from attempting its accomplishment. 

 An observer having cut an ant in two, the poor muti- 

 lated animal did not relax in its affectionate exertions. 

 With that half of the body to which the head remained 

 attached, it contrived previously to expiring to carry 

 off ten of these white masses into the interior of the 

 nest! You will readily divine that these attractive ob- 

 jects are the young of the ants in one of the first or 

 imperfect states. They are in fact not the eggs, as they 

 are vulgarly called, but the pupae, which the working 

 ants tend with the most patient assiduity. But I must 

 give you a more detailed account of their operations^ 

 beginning with the actual eggs. 



These, which are so small as to be scarcely visible 

 to the naked eye, as soon as deposited by the queen 

 ant, who drops them at random in her progress through 

 the nest, are taken charge of by the workers, who im- 

 mediately seize them and carry them in their mouths, 

 in small parcels, incessantly turning them backwards 

 and forwards with their tongue for the purpose of 

 moistening them, without which they would come tq 

 nothing. They then lay them in heapy, which they 



