PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 79 



vain ; for the besiegers, precipitating themselves upon 

 them, by tlie ardour of their attack compel them to re- 

 treat within, and seek shelter in tlie lowest story; great 

 numbers entering with them at the gates, while others 

 with their mandibles make a breach in the walls, 

 through which the victorious army marches into the 

 besieged city. In a few minutes, by the same passages, 

 they as hastily evacuate it, each carrying olf in its 

 mouth a larva or pupa which it has seized in spite of 

 its unhappy guardians. On their return home with 

 their spoil, they pursue exactly the route by which 

 they went to the attack. Their success on these ex- 

 peditions is rather the result of their impetuosity, by 

 which they damp the courage of the negroes, than of 

 their superior strength, though they are a larger ani- 

 mal ; for sometimes a very small body of them, not 

 more than 150, has been known to succeed in their at- 

 tack and to carry off their booty. 



When from their proximity they are more readily to 

 be come at than those of the negroes, they sometimes 

 assault with the same view the nest of another species 

 of ant, which I shall call the miners {F. cunicuiaria, L.). 

 This species being more courageous than the other, on 

 this account the rufescent host marches to the attack 

 in closer order than usual, moving with astonishing ra- 

 pidity. As soon as they begin to enter their habita- 

 tion, myriads of the miners rushing out fall upon them 

 with great fury ; while others, well aware of their pur- 

 pose, making a passage through the midst of them, 

 carry off in their nioutii the larvae and puj)aB. The sur- 

 face of the nest thus becomes the scene of an obstinate 

 conflict, and the assailants are often deprived of the 



