PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECT*!. 59 



their affections and passions, and to delineate their 

 virtues; — while I show them to you when engaged in 

 war, and enable you to accompany them both in their 

 military expeditions and in their emigrations, — while 

 I make you a witness of their indefatigable industry 

 and incessant labours, — or invite you to be present, 

 during- their hours of relaxation^ at their sports and 

 amusements. 



That ants, though they are mute animals, have the 

 means of communicating to each other information of 

 various occurrences, and use a kind of language which 

 is mutually understood, will appear evident from the 

 following- facts. 



■ If those at the surface of a nest are alarmed, it is 

 wonderful in how short a time the alarm spreads 

 through the whole nest. It runs from quarter to quar- 

 ter ; the greatest inquietude seems to possess the com- 

 munity; and they carry with all possible dispatch their 

 treasures, the larvae and pupae, down to the lowest 

 apartments. Amongst those species of ants that do not 

 go much from home, sentinels seem to be stationed at 

 the avenues of their city. Disturbing once the little 

 heaps of earth thrown up at the entrances into the nest 

 of F. Jlava, which is of this description, I was struck 

 by observing- a single ant immediately come out, as if 

 to see what was the matter, and tliis three separate 

 times. 



The F. herculanea, L. inhabits the trunks of hollow 

 trees on the continent, for it has not yet been found in 

 England, upon which they are often passing- to and 

 fro. M. Huber observed that when he disturbed those 

 that were, at the greatest distance from the rest, they 



