PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 69 



straight line, it gives its body the utmost elevation it 

 is capable of; and thus 



" Collecting all its might dilated stands " 

 prepared to repel your attack. Put your finger a little 

 nearer, it immediately opens its jaws to bite you, and 

 rearing upon its liind-legs bends its abdomen between 

 them, to ejaculate its venom into the wound^. 



This angry people, so well armed and so courageous, 

 we may readily imagine are not always at peace with 

 their neighbours ; causes of dissension may arise to 

 light the flame of war between the inhabitants of nests 

 not far distant from each o^ier. To these little bus- 

 tling creatures a square foot of earth is a territory worth 

 contending for ; — their droves of Aphides equally valu- 

 able with the flocks and herds that cover our plains ; 

 and the body of a fly or a beetle, or a cargo of straws 

 and bits of stick, an acquisition as important as the 

 treasures of a Lima fleet to our seamen. Their wars 

 are usually between nests of different species ; some- 

 times, however, those of the same, when so near as to 

 interfere with and incommode each other, have their 

 battles; and with respect to ants of one species, Myr- 

 mica rubra, combats occasionally take place, contrary 

 to the general habits of the tribe of ants, between those 

 of the same nest. I shall give you some account of all 

 these conflicts, beginning with the last. But I must 

 first observe, that the only warriors amongst our ants 

 are the neuters or workers ; the males and females 

 being very peaceable creatures, and always glad to ^et 

 out of harm's way. 



The wars of the red ant {M. rubra) are usually be- 



! See Fouicroy, Jnnales du Museum, no. 5. 343. 



