4S PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



the principal of these are Leeuwenhoeck, Swammer- 

 dam (who was the first that had recourse to artificial 

 means for observing- their proceedings), Linne, Bonnet, 

 and especially the illustrious Swedish entomologist De 

 Geer. Gould also, who, though no systematical natu- 

 ralist, was a man of sense and observation, has thrown 

 great light upon the history of ants, and anticipated se- 

 veral of what are accounted the discoveries of more 

 modern writers ont his subject*. Latreille's Natural 



" M. P. Huber, in the account which, in imitation of De Geer, he has 

 given of the discoveries made by his predecessors in the history of ants, 

 having passed without notice, probably ignorant of the existence of such 

 a writer, those of our intelligent countryman Gould, I shall here give a 

 short analysis of them; from v.liich it will appear, that he was one of their 

 best, or rather their very best historian, till I\I. Iluber's work came out. 

 His Account of English Ants was published in U 47, long before eiiher 

 Linne or De Geer had written upon the subject. 



I. Species. He describes five species of English ants; viz. 1. The hill 

 ant {Formica rnfa, L.) 2. The jet ant (F. fuliginosa, Latr.) 3. The 

 red ant {3Iyrmica rubra, hMr. Formica, Lin.): He observes, that this 

 Species alone is armed with a sting; whereas, the others make a wound 

 with their mandibles, and inject the formic acid in(o it. 4. Tlie common 

 yellow ant {F.flava, Latr.): and 5. The small black ant {F.fusca, L.). 



II. Egg. He observes that the eggs producing males and females are 

 laid the earliest, and are the largest : — he seems, however, to have con- 

 founded the black and brown eggs of Jphides with those of ants. 



III. Larva. These, when first hatched, he observes, are hairy, and 

 continue in the larva state twelve months or more. He, as well as De 

 Geer, was aware that the larvae of Myrmica rubra do not, as other ants 

 do, spin a cocoon when they assume the pupa. 



IV. Pupa. He found that female ants continue in this state about si.\ 

 ■weeks, and males and neuters only a month. 



V. Imago. He knew perfectly the sexes, and was aware that fe- 

 males cast their wings previous to their becoming mothers; that, at the 

 time of their swarms, large numbers of both sexes become the prey of 

 birds and fishes ; that the surviving females, sometimes in numbers, go 

 ander ground, particularly in mole-hills, and lay eggs ; but he bad not 



