9S PERFECT SOCIETIES OF INSECTS. 



when they lay hold of them. They make in the ground 

 broad paths, well beaten, which may be readily distin- 

 guished, and which are formed by the going and coming 

 of innumerable ants, whose custom it is always to tra- 

 vel in the same route ^." From Huber we further 

 learn, that these roads of the hill-ants are sometimes a 

 hundred feet in length, and several inches wide ; and 

 that they are not formed merely by the tread of these 

 creatures, but hollowed out by their labour''. Virgil 

 alludes to their tracks in the following animated lines, 

 which, though not altogether correct, are very beau- 

 tiful : 



*' So when the pismires, an industrious train, 

 Embodied rob some golden heap of grain, 

 Studious ere stormy winter frowns to lay 

 Safe in their darksome cells the treasured prey; 

 In one long track the dusky legions lead 

 Their prize in triumph through the verdant mead: 

 Here bending with the load, a panting throng 

 With force conjoin'd heave some huge grain along; 

 Some lash the stragglers to the task assign'd. 

 Some to their ranks the bands that lag behind : 

 They crowd the peopled path in thick array, 

 Glow at the work, and darken all the way." 



Bonnet, observing that ants always keep the same 

 track both in going from and returning to their nest, 

 imagines that their paths are imbued with the strong 

 scent of the formic acid, which serves to direct them ; 

 but, as Huber remarks, though this may be of some use 

 to them, their other senses must be equally employed, 

 since it is evident, when they have made any discovery 

 ? De Geer, ii. 1067. ^ Huber, 146, 



