84 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



sole motive for their predatory excursions seems to be 

 mere laziness and hatred of labour. Active and in- 

 trepid as they are in the field, at all other times they 

 are the most helpless animals that can be imagined ; — 

 unwilling to feed themselves, or even to walk, their 

 indolence exceeds that of the sloth itself So entirely 

 dependent, indeed, are they upon their negroes for 

 every thing, that upon some occasions the latter seem 

 to be the masters, and exercise a kind of authority over 

 them. They will not suffer them, for instance, to go 

 out before the proper season, or alone ; and if they re- 

 turn from their excursions without their usual booty, 

 they give them a very indifferent reception, showing 

 their displeasure, which however soon ceases, by at- 

 tacking them ; and when they attempt to enter the nest, 

 dragging them out. To ascertain what they would do 

 when obliged to trust to their own exertions, Huber 

 shut up thirty of the rufescent ants in a glazed box, 

 supplying them with larvse and pupae of their own kind, 

 with the addition of several negro pupae, excluding very 

 carefully all their slaves, and placing some honey in a 

 corner of thqir prison. Incredible as it may seem, they 

 made no attempt to feed themselves : and though at 

 first they paid some attention to their larvae, carryinjj 

 them here and there, as if too great a charge they soon 

 laid them down again; most of them died of hunger in 

 less than two days ; and the few that remained alive 

 appeared extremely weak and languid. At lengpth, 

 commiserating their condition, he admitted a single 

 negro; and this little active creature by itself re-esta- 

 blished order — made a cell in the earth ; collected the 

 larvae and placed them in it ; assisted the pupae that 



