94 PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



taken by the whole community. Sometimes many 

 neuters set about this business at the same time, which 

 gives a short existence (for in the end they all re- 

 unite into one) to many separate formicaries. If the 

 ants dislike their new city, they quit it for a third, and 

 even for a fourth : and what is remarkable, they will 

 sometimes return to their original one before they are 

 entirely settled in tlie new station ; when the recruit- 

 ing' goes in opposite directions, and the pairs pass each 

 other on the road. You may stop the emigration for 

 the present, if you can arrest the first recruiter, and 

 take away his recruit^. 



I shall now relate to you some other portions of 

 Myrmidonian History, which, though perhaps not so 

 striking and wonderful as the preceding details, are not 

 devoid of interest, and will serve to exemplify their in- 

 credible diligence, labour, and ingenuity. 



In this country it is commonly in March, earlier or 

 later according to the season, that ants first make their 

 appearance, and they continue their labours till the 

 middle or latter end of October. They emerge usu- 

 ally from their subterranean winter-quarters on some 

 sunny day ; when, assembling in crowds on the surface 

 of the formicary, they may be observed in continual 

 motion, walking incessantly over it and one another, 

 without departing from home ; as if their object, before 

 they resumed their employments, was to habituate 

 themselves to the action of the air and sun''. This 

 preparation requires a few days, and then the business 

 of the year commences. The earliest employment of 

 unts is most probably to repair the injuries which their 



f See Iliibcr, chap. iv. ^3. " Gould, G7. De Geer, ii. 1054. 



