86 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF IJVSECTS. 



look up to them, and are in some' degree under their 

 control. 



The above observations, with respect to the indo- 

 lence of our slave-dealers, relate principally to the ru' 

 fescent species ; for the sanguine ants are not altogether 

 so listless and helpless ; they assist their negroes in the 

 construction of their nests, they collect their sweet 

 fluid from the Aphides ; and one of their most usual 

 occupations is to lie in wait for a small species of ant, 

 on which they feed ; and when their nest is menaced by 

 an enemy, they show their value for these faithful ser- 

 vants by carrying them down into the lowest apart- 

 ments, as to a place of the greatest security. Some- 

 times even the rufescents rouse themselves from the 

 torpor that usually benumbs them. In one instance, 

 when they wished to emigrate from their own to a de- 

 serted nest, they reversed what usually takes place on 

 such occasions, and carried all their negroes themselves 

 to the spot they had chosen. At the first foundation 

 also of their societies by impregnated females, there is 

 good reason for thinking, that, like those of other spe- 

 cies % they take upon themselves the whole charge of 

 the nascent colony. I must not here omit a most ex- 

 traordinary anecdote related by M. Huber. He put 

 into one of his artificial formicaries pupae of both spe- 

 cies of the slave-collecting ants, which, under the care 

 of some negroes introduced with them, arrived at their 

 imago state, and lived together under the same roof in 

 the most perfect amity. 



These facts show what effects education will produce 

 even upon insects; that it will impart to them a new 



* Vol. I. 2d Ed, 369. 



