AFFECTION OF INSECTS FOR THEIR YOUNG. 369 



them. After thus liberating and afterwards feeding- the 

 new-born insects, they still for several days watch and 

 follow them every where, teaching them to unravel the 

 paths and winding labyrinths of the common habita- 

 tion^; and when the males and females at length take 

 flight, these affectionate stepmothers accompany them, 

 mounting with them to the summit of the highest herbs, 

 showing the most tender solicitude for them, (some 

 even endeavour to retain them,) feeding them for the 

 last time, caressing them; and at length, when they 

 rise into the air and disappear, seeming to linger for 

 some seconds over the footsteps of these favoured 

 beings, of whom they have taken such exemplary care, 

 and whom they will never behold again'*. 



In the above account, exclusive of the bare fact of 

 their laying the eggs, no mention is made of the female 

 ants, the real parents of the republic. You are not from 

 this to suppose that they never feel the influence of this 

 divine principle of love for their offspring. When, in- 

 deed, a colony is established and peopled, they have 

 enough to do to furnish it with eggs to produce its ne- 

 cessary supply of future females, males and workers ; 

 which, according to Gould, are laid at three different 

 seasons ''. This is the ordinary duty assigned to them 

 by Providence. Yet at the first formation of a nest, the 

 female acts the kind part, and performs all the mater- 

 nal offices which I have just described as peculiar to the 

 w orkers ; and it is only when these become sufficiently 

 numerous to relieve her that she resigns this charge and 

 devotes herself exclusively to oviposition*^. 



There is one circumstance occurring at this period 



^Huber, 83. " Ibid. 93. "^ p. 35. " Hi*er, ilO. 



VOL. I. 2 B 



