4(? PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



ject, and some even of very late date, have taken it for 

 granted that the ancients were correct iji this notion. 

 But when observers of nature began to examine the 

 manners and economy of these creatures more narrowly, 

 it was found, at least with respect to the European 

 species of ants, that no such hoards of grain were made 

 by them, and, in fact, that they had no magazines in 

 their nests in which provisionsof any kind were stored 

 up. It was therefore surmised that the ancients, ob- 

 serving them carry about their pupae, which in shape, 

 size, and colour, not a little resemble a grain of corn, 

 and the ends of which they sometimes pull open to let 

 out the inclosed insect, mistook the one for the other, 

 and this action for depriving the grain of the corculum. 

 Mr. Gould, our countryman, was one of the first histo- 

 rians of the ant, who discovered that they did not store 

 up corn ; and since his time naturalists have generally 

 subscribed to that opinion. 



Till the manners of exotic ants are more accu- 

 rately explored, it would, however, be rash to affirm 

 that no ants have magazines of provisions ; for al- 

 though, during the cold of our winters in this country, 

 they remain in a state of torpidity, and have no need 

 of food, yet in warmer regions, during the rainy sea- 

 sons, when they are probably confined to their nests, 

 a store of provisions may be necessary for them. Even 

 in northern climates, against wet seasons, they may 

 provide in this way for their sustenance and that of the 

 young brood, which, as Mr. Smeathman observes, are 

 very voracious, and cannot bear to be long deprived of 

 their food ; else why do ants carry worms, living in- 

 sects, and many other such things into their nests ? So- 

 lomon's lesson to the sluggard has been generally ad- 



